By now we’ve all seen the shameful way that Mitch McConnell and company silenced Sen. Elizabeth Warren from reading Coretta Scott King’s letter on Sen. Jeff Sessions on Tuesday night. But here’s something else that you should know—on Wednesday morning, so far, two other senators have now read that same letter on the floor of the Senate without any objection whatsoever. It’s worth noting that both of those senators (Sen. Jeff Merkley and Sen. Udall) are white and male.
So what exactly is the deal here? How is it possible that Warren was censored for the remaining 30 hours of debate while two other Democrats get to read the exact same document she was rebuked for reading? Of course, its easy to assume that this is yet another flagrant example of the racism and misogyny of the GOP leadership; and make no mistake, it most certainly is. But it also suggests something that we’ve suspected all along—that the Republican leadership is absolutely scared shitless of Elizabeth Warren.
Republican senators cut off and then silenced Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Tuesday night for reading a letter criticizing President Donald Trump’s attorney general pick. But Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) managed to read portions of the same letter opposing nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) without any interruption a few hours later.
...The GOP later voted to silence Warren for the remaining 30 hours of debate, as Senate Democrats voiced their outrage.
Despite their feigned concerns about “the rules” and “decorum” in the Senate, this is actually a tactic to silence the one Democrat who is the fiercest, most vocal and consistent opponent of the Trump administration and its cronies on Wall Street. And she’s a woman, so you know that has to have them seeing red. The beauty of this whole thing is that even in all their pomposity and the strategy of having Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to be the one to silence her, their attempt is backfiring gloriously. #LetLizSpeak is now trending on Twitter and now more people have read Coretta Scott King’s damning letter on Sessions than we could have ever hoped. Republicans have proven once again that they are hypocrites. And maybe, just maybe, now Warren has some steam for a 2020 presidential bid.
No disrespect to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy who was always known as the “Lion of the Senate,” but it just might be that in 2017 our lion is actually a lioness from Massachusetts.
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