New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall (D) read Coretta Scott King's scathing letter against Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Wednesday after his colleague, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), was banned for attempting to do the same. On Tuesday night, Warren attempted to read the missive on the Senate floor, only to be barred by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said that by reading the missive Warren "impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama," a violation of the Senate's arcane Rule 19.
King's letter, written to protest Sessions' nomination to a federal judgeship in 1986, reads in part that "the irony of Mr. Sessions' nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished 20 years ago with clubs and cattle prods. Twenty years ago, when we marched from Selma to Montgomery, the fear of voting was real, as the broken bones and bloody heads in Selma and Marion bore witness."
Udall used the letter to express his distress over Sessions' nomination for attorney general, and more broadly his concern over President Donald Trump's Cabinet. Watch the beginning of Udall's remarks below. Jeva Lange
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