After being silenced on the Senate floor Tuesday for reading a Coretta Scott King letter, Sen. Elizabeth Warren(D-Mass.) decided to go for it anyway — albeit, outside the door.
Late Tuesday, the senator posted a Facebook video of herself reading the letter from Dr. Martin Luther King’s widow out side the door of the Senate floor. The letter voiced strong concerns about Sen. Jeff Sessions(R. Ala.), who has been nominated for Attorney General. The chamber was debating Sessions’ appointment at the time.
“The letter, from 30 years ago, urged the Senate to reject the nomination of Jeff Sessions to a federal judgeship,” Warren wrote on Facebook. “The Republicans took away my right to read this letter on the floor — so I’m right outside, reading it now.”
In the letter, King wrote that Sessions had chilled “the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.”
According to Reuters, quotes in the letter broke Senate rules by “impugning the motives” of Sessions, a fellow senator. That rule is known as Senate Rule 19, and was invoked by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to stop Warren’s speech short.
https://www.facebook.com/senatorelizabethwarren/videos/724337794395383/
Warren has been barred from speaking at any other deliberation regarding Sessions’ nomination.