Sessions: Senate shouldn't have punished Warren over letter she 'persisted' in reading
Source: Politico
By JOSH GERSTEIN 09/26/2017 03:46 PM EDT Updated 09/26/2017 09:53 PM EDT
Attorney General Jeff Sessions indicated Tuesday that his colleagues were wrong to punish Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for seeking to read a historical letter sharply criticizing him during Senate floor debate on his confirmation in February.
"She certainly had the right to criticize my nomination. I think she really had the right to read the letter that she was blocked, or at least temporarily blocked, from reading," Sessions said during a question-and-answer session following a speech at Georgetown University's law school.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted along party lines to rebuke the outspoken liberal Democrat and silence her for the remainder of the day after she repeatedly attempted to read a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King accusing Sessions of "reprehensible" conduct during an election fraud prosecution of Alabama civil rights leaders.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that because Sessions was a senator and a nominee, the criticism ran afoul of a rarely enforced rule barring personal criticism of another senator. His terse explanation of why Warren was being punished quickly went viral on the internet and became a rallying cry for liberal activists, who slapped the statement on t-shirts, bumper stickers and more.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/09/26/jeff-sessions-elizabeth-warren-persisted-letter-243165
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