Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren drew a rebuke from Republicans Tuesday night after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said her comments about Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions broke Senate rules.
Warren was among the Democrats taking part in an all-night protest of Sessions' nomination ahead of tomorrow's vote. On the Senate floor, Warren said the Alabama Senator was unfit to lead the Justice Department.
"(Sessions) made derogatory and racist comments that should have no place in our justice system," she said. "To put Sen. Sessions in charge of the Department of Justice is an insult to African-Americans."
She went on to quote criticism of Sessions from a 1986 speech by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass, and a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King, the widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., opposing Sessions' nomination for federal judgeship.
In the middle of her speech, McConnell broke in to object. (Watch video below)
"The Senator has impugned the motives and conducts of our colleague from Alabama as warned by the chair. Sen Warren said Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote of black citizens. I call the senator to order under the provision of Rule 19," he said.
7 фев 2017
