People are demanding the GOP #LetLizSpeak after Warren silenced for quoting Coretta Scott King

By Katherine Krueger  |  February 8, 2017 | 1:00pm
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After Senate Republicans silenced their colleague, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on Tuesday night for reading Coretta Scott King’s decades-old letter opposing Sen. Jeff Sessions, Twitter users rallied around Warren with the hashtag #LetLizSpeak.

Warren was reading the letter King sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986 voicing her “strong opposition” to Sessions’ nomination for a federal judgeship. Although Democrats tried to appeal Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s invoking an arcane Senate rule against impugning fellow senators to silence Warren, they didn’t have the necessary votes.

Warren, for her part, stepped outside and finished reading King’s letter on Facebook Live, which has since been viewed more than 4.5 million times.

The dust-up didn’t play well on Twitter, where elected officials and their constituents urged the Senate GOP to #LetLizSpeak.

McConnell explained his rationale for using Senate rule 19 by saying Warren “was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” which also became a rallying cry for her supporters.

The Senate is expected to vote on Sessions’ confirmation as US Attorney General later today.

 
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