WASHINGTON — Democratic senators fighting to derail Jeff Sessions' nomination as attorney general repeatedly challenged Republicans Wednesday by reading aloud from a critical letter from Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, a day after the Republicans silenced Sen. Elizabeth Warren for doing the same.
Warren was ordered to sit down Tuesday night, throwing the Senate into turmoil as it headed for Wednesday night's vote on the Alabama senator. She was silenced for reading the letter that Coretta Scott King wrote three decades ago criticizing Sessions' record on race.
Other Democratic senators read from the letter Tuesday night after she was told to sit down, and more did so Wednesday morning.
Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat whose name has been prominent in speculation about the 2020 presidential race, was given a rare Senate rebuke for impugning a fellow senator and she was barred from saying anything more on the Senate floor about Sessions.
The late-night dust-up quickly spawned the hashtag #LetLizSpeak that was trending on Twitter early Wednesday.
The Senate has been working around the clock since Monday as Democrats challenge President Donald Trump's nominees, although the party lacks the votes to derail the picks. Senators reading from the letter Wednesday included Tom Udall of New Mexico, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Sanders said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who ordered Warren to sit and be silent, should apologize to her.
Without directly referencing the letter, McConnell said of Sessions: "It's been tough to watch all this good man has been put through in recent weeks."
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.