McConnell cuts off Warren Senate speech, accuses her of impugning Sessions

Posted by | February 7, 2017 21:09 | Filed under: Politics

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 UPDATE:   Senator Elizabeth Warren has fired back at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who cut off her speech against the appointment of Jeff Sessions to Attorney General using a parliamentary gimmick:

In a call with CNN’s Don Lemon Tuesday night, Warren emphasized that she was reprimanded for reading “an important historical document” that’s pertinent to the Senate’s upcoming vote.

“I was told that I had committed a Rule XIX violation by ‘impugning’ Mr. Sessions, and—I just want to be clear here—by telling the truth. By reading a document that had been written back in 1986 by Coretta Scott King, I was ‘impugning’ Mr. Sessions.”

Raw Story has a sampling of the righteous tweetstorm that McConnell triggered, including:

Feb. 7, 2017, 9:15pmEDT — Because Satan Lord forbid someone should speak the truth about a candidate for Attorney General with a racist history using words that are officially in the Congressional Record!

McConnell: Warren’s blistering Sessions speech broke Senate rules
© Victoria Sarno Jordan
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) of breaking the Senate’s rules with a blistering floor speech against Sen. Jeff Sessions’s attorney general nomination.

The Senate’s top Republican interrupted Warren’s speech to argue that she was violating the upper chamber’s rules, despite an initial warning by GOP Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who was presiding over the Senate.

“The senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama,” McConnell said from the Senate floor. “I call the senator to order under the provisions of Rule 19.”

Under the Senate’s “Rule 19,” senators are not allowed to “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.”

When Warren said she was “surprised” by McConnell’s actions and asked to continue, the Republican objected, effectively ending Warren’s speech.
Warren moved to appeal the ruling that she had broken the Senate’s rules. Lawmakers are expected to vote on her appeal later Tuesday evening.

Warren offered a blistering speech against Sessions from the Senate floor, arguing he wouldn’t stand up to Trump’s “campaign of bigotry.”

“He 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.”

Warren quoted a 1986 speech from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) who referred to Sessions as a “throwback to a shameful era” and a “disgrace” to the Justice Department.

Daines — who at times was repeating words being said to him by GOP Senate floor staff — initially interrupted Warren to warn her that she was on the brink of violating the rule.

McConnell also specifically pointed to Warren quoting a letter from the late Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King Jr., as evidence that she had broken the rules.

Coretta Scott King wrote in 1986, during Sessions’s confirmation hearing for a federal judgeship, that he “had used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens” as a U.S. attorney in Alabama. Sessions was ultimately not confirmed at that time.


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Copyright 2017 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.

50 responses to McConnell cuts off Warren Senate speech, accuses her of impugning Sessions

  1. KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker February 7th, 2017 at 21:14

    Glad to see Senator Warren putting pressure on these evil bastards.

    • Suzanne McFly February 7th, 2017 at 21:38

      Who knew it was wrong to speak truths on the Senate floor.

      • nola878 February 7th, 2017 at 22:01

        Truth will be a suppressed commodity over the next four years.

      • halfwayin February 8th, 2017 at 13:17

        The righties are in charge now, and truth, just like facts, are an option.

    • Hirightnow February 8th, 2017 at 00:23

      Here’s a relevant….
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX8aFpnWxPA
      Relevant to this day.

      • Laddie Watson February 8th, 2017 at 04:47

        Awesome and totally relevant!

      • (((doubt'n T))) February 8th, 2017 at 05:44

        I just saw this movie a few weeks ago for the first time. It is amazing to realize that the same shit has been going on for so long without any real change in how OUR government works! Where’s OUR Mr. Smith? Elizabeth Warren?

  2. Viir Exeter February 7th, 2017 at 23:08

    How’s that Republican “small government” workin’ for ya? How’s that Republican CENSORSHIP workin’ for ya? How’s that Republican trampling of the Constitution, AGAIN, workin’ for ya?

    • Hirightnow February 8th, 2017 at 00:18

      They understand the sowing of the wind, but the “reaping” part escapes them…
      Autocrats are kinda blind that way.
      (PS: Welcome to alan.com, Viir)

  3. plhooboy February 7th, 2017 at 23:14

    They can’t handle the truth.

  4. whatthe46 February 7th, 2017 at 23:42

    “I will not let you continue Sen. Warren. You have to understand, those words are a reflection on the GOP and myself. Therefore, I refuse to hear them because I want to be able to look into a mirror without shamed.” ~Mitch McConnell

    • Tommie February 8th, 2017 at 00:26

      Hey you, how are you doing?

      • whatthe46 February 8th, 2017 at 00:28

        hey my dear sweetie. i’m doing ok. i’m working on a temp assignment so i’m not here as much. and you how the hell are you my friend? oh, my baby turned 21 Sunday. waaaaa just yesterday he was 3. time fly’s by so damn fast.

        • Tommie February 8th, 2017 at 00:31

          I know, I feel like I was changing my daughter’s diaper yesterday and now she is a full grown women living out of state!

        • Lyndia February 9th, 2017 at 02:45

          It don’t take long, for them go grow up.

    • fredoandme February 8th, 2017 at 09:31

      every mirror in ditch’s house is broken.

    • halfwayin February 8th, 2017 at 13:16

      Has Beeotch McConell made any speeches to honor Black History month?

      Or trumpee?

    • Willys41 February 8th, 2017 at 15:13

      Why that’s McConnell admitting he’s ashamed of himself and the GOP.

  5. Mensa Member February 7th, 2017 at 23:49

    We live in a post-PC era, so I’ll just say it:

    The Sessions appointment is the GOP giving the middle finger to black people.

  6. Hirightnow February 8th, 2017 at 00:16

    Mitch, Mitch….
    Look to the Russian revolution if you think that you’re too old…

    • BillyBobSpeaks February 8th, 2017 at 08:49

      One correction — it’s Bitch Bitch.

      Oh, or Turtle Man.

      Take your pick.

      Otherwise, proceed.

  7. Willys41 February 8th, 2017 at 00:42

    OK, so it’s time to throw Rule 19 in republican faces. I’d say 300 times a day should be adequate and it shouldn’t be hard to substantiate.

  8. whatthe46 February 8th, 2017 at 02:30

    just wanna plug this in right here: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28b275a5058fa4e2b5bb734a8d8e973e6457ebb2e61f1fef568a18cd711f07b5.jpg

  9. Gina Bousquet February 8th, 2017 at 07:36

    The GOP– unlimited bigotry

    • oldfart February 8th, 2017 at 08:53

      Their wet dream of capturing congress and the white house has finally come true.
      They will let Mein tRump do and say pretty much anything he wants as long as he distracts the country while they get everything they ever wanted out of it.
      The only thing left standing in tRumps (aka bannon) way is the judicial branch and the supreme court.
      IMO, We are potentially looking at our darkest period in this countries history.

      • Gina Bousquet February 8th, 2017 at 09:08

        I absolutely agree on every point. If you consider your country’s economic and military power you can safely say this dreadful administration is unprecedented in contemporary history.

      • crc3 February 8th, 2017 at 10:32

        The entire world should be aware of what is happening in America. As America goes so does the world and it’s not good news at all….

  10. Trina Perry February 8th, 2017 at 07:36

    What Mrs. Scott King said in 1986 actually penetrated the hardening moral shell of the then existing GOP. The current incarnation of that same body is actually pretending offense at the words that described the ACTIONS of the man they would elevate to the Attorney General of the USA.

    • Gina Bousquet February 8th, 2017 at 09:12

      I would upvote your comment many times over if possible.

  11. BillyBobSpeaks February 8th, 2017 at 08:50

    Dear Sen. Bitch McConnell:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c7e608b4e6f289b3bb71559db538cf5be0f43dcc5d89a6ba6f21d27b608cbfd8.jpg

    Very truly yours,

    America

  12. labman57 February 8th, 2017 at 09:45

    McConnell embraces the “3 Monkeys”.

  13. Gina Bousquet February 8th, 2017 at 10:08

    So Jeff Sessions was too racist to be a federal judge in Reagan’s administration while in Trump’s he totally fits in. The nightmare team!

    • whatthe46 February 8th, 2017 at 10:16

      it truly is.

      • Gina Bousquet February 8th, 2017 at 11:24

        Yep, the world’s nightmare, but mostly the American unbelievable torment.

    • halfwayin February 8th, 2017 at 13:11

      OH my,! are you reffering to the second paragraph of the United States Declaration of Independence starts as follows: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

      It is now meaningless.

      The righties are now in charge.

      • Gina Bousquet February 8th, 2017 at 14:42

        Wonderful paragraph. Yes, bound to be ignored by the fascists in charge, though never meaningless to the people.

  14. crc3 February 8th, 2017 at 10:29

    The Turtle yet again abuses his power. Voters in KY who voted for him are ignorant inbreds but voter suppression and gerrymandering also helps keep him in office. I truly hate his guts…

  15. crc3 February 8th, 2017 at 10:35

    Add in women, the poor, and the middle class. $$ and the top 1% are their gods…

  16. halfwayin February 8th, 2017 at 13:04

    I know exactly how she feels. I have been banned from Alan.com because I dissagreed with a power hungry moderator at this very website.

    A website that I have visited for 5 years.

    And I am Banned for life.

    I won’t mention his name because he might ban me again. But you all know who HE is.

    His initials are mea-mark.

    • Willys41 February 8th, 2017 at 15:10

      If you are banned for life then you’re being dishonest posting here under a different user name.

      • halfwayin February 8th, 2017 at 15:47

        Be careful and make sure you do not disagree with mea mark.

        Or you will be next.

        • bpollen February 8th, 2017 at 16:23

          Well, I just recently disagreed with him. I’m still here, still under the exact same user name. Maybe it’s just YOU?

          And “power hungry” descriptions detract from your credibility on the issue. You have no way of knowing WHAT he’s hungry for, so you are making assumptions based on your feewings.

  17. Bunya February 8th, 2017 at 16:50

    Maybe, if Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (even sounds like a racist name) didn’t act “unworthy or unbecoming of a senator” by allowing all to see what a notorious racist bigot he is perhaps Ms. Warren wouldn’t feel compelled to call him out on it.

  18. amersham1046 February 8th, 2017 at 17:21

    Democracy is slowly losing its voice in America–
    Sad

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