Elizabeth Warren Barred From Reading Coretta Scott King Letter About Jeff Sessions On Senate Floor

[OKTexas]

McConnell Cuts Off Elizabeth Warren For Criticizing Sessions, Senate GOP Silences Her

Warren was reading a 1986 letter by Coretta Scott King about Sessions.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) rose on Tuesday and objected to a speech Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was giving in opposition to the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general.

McConnell took particular issue with Warren as she quoted a letter written by Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow, when Sessions was under consideration for a federal judgeship in 1986.

McConnell invoked the little-used Rule XIX, which says that “No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.” King’s letter argues that, during Sessions’ time as a prosecutor in Alabama, “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.” It was that portion of the letter that McConnell read back to the presiding officer, arguing that it was over the line.

The Republican presiding in the chair, Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, agreed with McConnell, ruling her in violation of the order and forcing her to sit down.

“I am surprised that the words of Coretta Scott King are not suitable for debate in the United States Senate,” Warren replied.

A vote was then held on Warren’s appeal of the ruling of the chair, and Republicans prevailed. Under the rules, she would be barred from speaking during the remaining 30 hours of the Sessions debate.

Democrats then asked that, notwithstanding the ruling of the chair, her speaking privileges be restored, and McConnell called for a vote on the request. The story is developing.

Watch a clip of the exchange above.

More: Mitch McConnell Cuts Off Elizabeth Warren For Criticizing Jeff Sessions

I've been watching the Senate for many years - but I've never seen anything like this. This seems like a very stupid move by Mitch McConnell. Senator Warren was "Red Carded" by the Senate - which means she will not be allowed to speak on Jeff Sessions anymore.

It's about time McConnell grew a pair. damn rules, you folks just can't seem abide by them

What the fuck rule are you talking about? The letter was already in the congressional record. She didn't do anything wrong. She just read what was already there and had been read before. Why wasn't it wrong then but it's wrong now? The answer? It wasn't wrong. It was racist Republicans shutting up a Democrat because he felt like it. Period.

Evidently it violated rule 19, McConnell brought it up and the chair sustained and told the bitch to take her seat. I guess you didn't bother to watch the video. Maybe instead of bitching at me you should look up Senate rule 19, I'm not going to do it for you.

Mitch, a racist, defending racist Sessions.

Is that really the best you got? LMAO Racist against what, faux injuns?

 

[ZZ PUPPS]

It just showcases how RaTz think rules don't apply to them. It's all about them, them only, and their unmitigated lust for power.

 

[Iceweasel]

She did open her mouth, she wasn't shut down for speaking.

She was shut down for speaking, however the poster I was responding too suggested that she be shut down before being allowed to speak.

If you're saying the public is better served by getting propaganda from Democrat media outlets I say bull. She can lie and CNN can report but America needs more facts and less manufactured drama.

She can go to the press and regurgitate all the unfounded accusations contained in the letter anyways but NOW she can not only do that but she can also go to the press and bitch about how the Republicans violated her right to speak on the Senate Floor, they just made her into a free speech Martyr instead of taking the opportunity to make her look stupid by letting her speak and then destroying her argument on the floor of the Senate in front of the cameras.

I don't watch the msm but if they are giving the GOP a black eye it proves how worthless they are, not how bad the GOP is.

That's not the point, what Republican hyper-partisans think isn't important, it's what the general "middle of the road" public thinks that will determine electoral outcomes and this makes the GOP look bad to them. Personally I don't really give a fuck since I have no more respect for the GOP than I do for the Democrats but from a political standpoint what McConnell did makes no sense.

Jesus H. Christ! She wasn't shut down for opening her pie hole, it's what flew out of it that caused her problems. Why is that too hard?

Dishonesty in the media and how it's presented isn't the point? It is for me, speak for your own points.

 

[Hutch Starskey]

Evidently it violated rule 19, McConnell brought it up and the chair sustained and told the bitch to take her seat. I guess you didn't bother to watch the video. Maybe instead of bitching at me you should look up Senate rule 19, I'm not going to do it for you.

Cruz called Mitch a "liar" on the senate floor, but Mitch ignored it.

Ms. Warren read a letter decades old in the Senate record. But she is censored? Like I said a couple of hundred times. The rules are different for Democrats.

I concede you and the liberals have a good objection



Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement that McConnell's action was "selective enforcement" of Rule XIX.

"Senate Republicans have regularly flaunted Rule XIX in the past – but Republicans never asked them to sit down," said Schumer, who went on to point out that McConnell didn't object when Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called him a liar in a 2015 dustup.

No they don't, you haven't looked at the rule either I guess.

Obviously, you haven't either. I even posted it in #52 and you still didn't read it.

I guess you didn't understand #2 of the rule, Warrens motive was to personally impute another Senator, that's a no-no.

No, the motive was to bring evidence of her concerns with the nominee for AG in the most appropriate time to do so. During the debate period.

 

[NightFox]

She did open her mouth, she wasn't shut down for speaking.

She was shut down for speaking, however the poster I was responding too suggested that she be shut down before being allowed to speak.

If you're saying the public is better served by getting propaganda from Democrat media outlets I say bull. She can lie and CNN can report but America needs more facts and less manufactured drama.

She can go to the press and regurgitate all the unfounded accusations contained in the letter anyways but NOW she can not only do that but she can also go to the press and bitch about how the Republicans violated her right to speak on the Senate Floor, they just made her into a free speech Martyr instead of taking the opportunity to make her look stupid by letting her speak and then destroying her argument on the floor of the Senate in front of the cameras.

I don't watch the msm but if they are giving the GOP a black eye it proves how worthless they are, not how bad the GOP is.

That's not the point, what Republican hyper-partisans think isn't important, it's what the general "middle of the road" public thinks that will determine electoral outcomes and this makes the GOP look bad to them. Personally I don't really give a fuck since I have no more respect for the GOP than I do for the Democrats but from a political standpoint what McConnell did makes no sense.

Jesus H. Christ! She wasn't shut down for opening her pie hole, it's what flew out of it that caused her problems. Why is that too hard?

Dishonesty in the media and how it's presented isn't the point? It is for me, speak for your own points.

No shit Sherlock, why don't you go back and read the preceding portion of the conversation that you've inserted yourself into, what she said on the Senate Floor doesn't make a damn bit of difference it's how the Majority Leader reacted to it that does and what she can now do with that reaction, politics is PERCEPTION, what is that "too hard" for you to understand?

 

[OKTexas]

To me this is simple. Mrs. King had an opinion. No evidence. Game over. The letter with her opinion doesn't count.

mrs king was invited to TESTIFY before the Senate Hearing on Sessions, she had a previous commitment and could not be there in person, she submitted her testimony in writing. Her testimony was accepted and read to the Senators AND was the main REASON why Sessions was denied the judgeship.

And that's exactly, according to Senate rules, where it should have been read. Not on the floor.

 

[Hutch Starskey]

In the letter, King wrote that Sessions “used the power of his office as United States Attorney to intimidate and chill the free exercise of the ballot by citizens.” Among other things, Sessions attempted to “intimidate and frighten elderly black voters,” King added.

McConnell said that, by quoting Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow, Warren “impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama.” He then invoked Rule 19 to force Warren to stop speaking.

The rule is intended to encourage senators to be polite to each other. But McConnell used it squelch debate about a man nominated to be the next Attorney General of the United States.

More: Elizabeth Warren was just silenced on the Senate floor. Her crime was quoting Coretta Scott King.

Unbelievable!

The old letter is opinion and not proven facts. Warren was just playing the race card to get her way.

She should have been shut down.

Jeff Sessions, Trump’s Pick for Attorney General, Is a Fierce Opponent of Civil Rights

Dope

 

[Rustic]

Pocahontas has no credibility

 

[ZZ PUPPS]

She did open her mouth, she wasn't shut down for speaking.

She was shut down for speaking, however the poster I was responding too suggested that she be shut down before being allowed to speak.

If you're saying the public is better served by getting propaganda from Democrat media outlets I say bull. She can lie and CNN can report but America needs more facts and less manufactured drama.

She can go to the press and regurgitate all the unfounded accusations contained in the letter anyways but NOW she can not only do that but she can also go to the press and bitch about how the Republicans violated her right to speak on the Senate Floor, they just made her into a free speech Martyr instead of taking the opportunity to make her look stupid by letting her speak and then destroying her argument on the floor of the Senate in front of the cameras.

I don't watch the msm but if they are giving the GOP a black eye it proves how worthless they are, not how bad the GOP is.

That's not the point, what Republican hyper-partisans think isn't important, it's what the general "middle of the road" public thinks that will determine electoral outcomes and this makes the GOP look bad to them. Personally I don't really give a fuck since I have no more respect for the GOP than I do for the Democrats but from a political standpoint what McConnell did makes no sense.

Jesus H. Christ! She wasn't shut down for opening her pie hole, it's what flew out of it that caused her problems. Why is that too hard?

Dishonesty in the media and how it's presented isn't the point? It is for me, speak for your own points.

No shit Sherlock, why don't you go back and read the preceding portion of the conversation that you've inserted yourself into, what she said on the Senate Floor doesn't make a damn bit of difference it's how the Majority Leader reacted to it that does and what she can now do with that reaction, politics is PERCEPTION, what is that "too hard" for you to understand?

Thou aggrandize her too much. In less than a week, no one will even remember the event. But her resultant censure by a FULL VOTE of the Senate is a matter of record. A record that can be used against her come election time. It was a master stroke by Mitch. You just fail to see it due to your socialist colored glasses.

 

[bendog]

Well, she may have been imputing, but whether an AG is a racist deserves to be questioned, but Mitch the Turtle wasn't having any of that. LOL

But seriously, we know what Sessions is. Did Holder treat white cops the same way he treated black criminals? I don't think so.

The real question is whether Sessions plans to try to deport a parent of a child legally born an American and who is in school? We know Trump's muslim immigration policy. We know what he did with the EO to keep visa holding former Iraqi interpreters who worked for us and who are targeted for torture and death by Iraqi terrorists, may be (and hopefully will be) illegal. But he can certainly set up extreme vetting in the future, regardless of whether it makes us safer (and I don't see any REAL facts suggesting it does). But we know where Trump is going, and by a strange quirk of fate, he won the election. But what's he gonna do with the 10 million or so undocumented workers?

Warren was really just a distraction, and he did embarrass the gop senate. Fine job there, btw.

 

[rightwinger]

She did open her mouth, she wasn't shut down for speaking.

She was shut down for speaking, however the poster I was responding too suggested that she be shut down before being allowed to speak.

If you're saying the public is better served by getting propaganda from Democrat media outlets I say bull. She can lie and CNN can report but America needs more facts and less manufactured drama.

She can go to the press and regurgitate all the unfounded accusations contained in the letter anyways but NOW she can not only do that but she can also go to the press and bitch about how the Republicans violated her right to speak on the Senate Floor, they just made her into a free speech Martyr instead of taking the opportunity to make her look stupid by letting her speak and then destroying her argument on the floor of the Senate in front of the cameras.

I don't watch the msm but if they are giving the GOP a black eye it proves how worthless they are, not how bad the GOP is.

That's not the point, what Republican hyper-partisans think isn't important, it's what the general "middle of the road" public thinks that will determine electoral outcomes and this makes the GOP look bad to them. Personally I don't really give a fuck since I have no more respect for the GOP than I do for the Democrats but from a political standpoint what McConnell did makes no sense.

Jesus H. Christ! She wasn't shut down for opening her pie hole, it's what flew out of it that caused her problems. Why is that too hard?

Dishonesty in the media and how it's presented isn't the point? It is for me, speak for your own points.

What specifically in what she said do you object to?

 

[Snouter]

Some White-haters on MSNBC said Pocahontas' disastrous, embarrassing spectacle actually made her the democrat front runner for President. LOL

 

[Hutch Starskey]

To me this is simple. Mrs. King had an opinion. No evidence. Game over. The letter with her opinion doesn't count.

mrs king was invited to TESTIFY before the Senate Hearing on Sessions, she had a previous commitment and could not be there in person, she submitted her testimony in writing. Her testimony was accepted and read to the Senators AND was the main REASON why Sessions was denied the judgeship.

And that's exactly, according to Senate rules, where it should have been read. Not on the floor.

It was the debate period. The exact appropriate time.

 

[Rexx Taylor]

Going into the 60's, Elizabeth Warren was going into her teen age years. She saw the 60's. And who were the ones who created the KKK? Who were the ones that hated blacks? Democrats?, and now she is trying to discredit the honorable Jeff Sessions of what his thoughts may have been about blacks a long long time ago? Does High Cheif Warren know what Harry Reid and Joe Biden have said about either or\and Obama and blacks in general? But its OK for a Democrat to insult black people, right?

 

[jknowgood]

Ah, the old "intimidating black voters" charge. So what did Sessions do, set up a police blockade and not let anyone into the voting booths?

He must have asked one for an id.

 

[JustAnotherNut]

Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, objected that Warren had broken Senate rules that prohibit one member impugning the conduct of another. Senators then voted 49-43 to uphold a ruling in McConnell’s favour.

THIS^^^ is why she was shut out. She broke a rule that she had been warned about several times.

 

[HenryBHough]

What Republicans must learn is that rules are for the little people.

They do not apply to liberals.
They do not apply to snowflakes.
They do not apply to power-obsessed pussies.

 

[rdean]

And the letter on RECORD should have been allowed, it was pertinent to the debate.

Are you sure it was in the record? Have you got an alternate link to mine?

"Her letter, which was previously unreleased and not entered into the Congressional record, emerged as Sessions faces new opposition in 2016, with his nomination as President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general."

Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife wrote a letter condemning Jeff Sessions in 1986

Democrats were incensed that McConnell kept Warren from reading the letter even though it was already in the Congressional record.

Jeff Merkley reads Coretta Scott King's letter about Jeff Sessions on Senate floor

So it either was or it wasn't.

Democrats reacted quickly and negatively to McConnell's attempted censorship, some noting that chamber rules against "impugning" other Senators did not apply to Presidential nominees. McConnell, for his part, explained that the decorum rule did not have an exception for factual information.

Before long, Merkley's own turn to speak came, and he managed to finish what Warren had started: Reading portions of King's letter into the record from the Senate floor.

The looming vote to confirm Sessions marks a test of Senate Democrats in terms of strategy, unity and resolve, even as public anger in non-Trump-voting states grows in response to his dubiously qualified cabinet appointments, judicially rebuked executive orders and belligerent promotion of "alternative facts."

Unlike Warren, Merkley spoke without interruption by McConnell.

Jeff Merkley Defies Senate Republican Leader by Reading Coretta Scott King's Words on the Floor of Congress

----------------------

So whether it was or wasn't. It is now.

What Republicans did was fucked up. They are a dirty bunch. We saw it under Bush and in Trump's first 20 days of disaster, incompetence and ineptness.

 

[bendog]

I will say that while my next dog may still be alive when I finally leave Mississippi, and two previous dogs behind,, I was going to name him Jefferson Finis Davis or Ole Jeff for short. But I'm really leaning towards Jefferson Beauregard Sessions or Ole Jeff.

 

[rightwinger]

Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, objected that Warren had broken Senate rules that prohibit one member impugning the conduct of another. Senators then voted 49-43 to uphold a ruling in McConnell’s favour.

THIS^^^ is why she was shut out. She broke a rule that she had been warned about several times.

What did she specifically say that broke the rule?

In order to silence a duly elected US Senator you should have a specific statement

What was it?