Elizabeth Warren reads Coretta Scott King's letter opposing Jeff Sessions to millions on Facebook, after Senate censure

Sen. Warren reads a letter from Coretta Scott King off the Senate floor

(Image credit: Facebook/SenatorElizabethWarren)

Tuesday night was a thriller for fans of parliamentary procedure. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) interrupted Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) floor speech against fellow Sen. Jeff Sessions' (R-Ala.) nomination to be U.S. attorney general, invoking Senate Rule XIX to force Warren to sit down because her reading of a 30-year-old letter by Coretta Scott King "impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama." Warren appealed the ruling, suggesting there wasn't a quorum, but lost a party-line vote. Now she is barred from speaking about Sessions on the Senate floor.

But she can, of course, talk about him off the Senate floor. "The Republicans took away my right to read this letter on the floor — so I'm right outside, reading it now," Warren said on Facebook. So far, more than 2 million people have watched the video of a U.S. senator reading a letter making President Trump's attorney general pick look pretty shabby. Well played, Sen. McConnell. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.