Under the Radar Blog Archives Select Date… August, 2020 July, 2020 June, 2020 May, 2020 April, 2020 March, 2020 February, 2020 January, 2020 December, 2019 November, 2019 October, 2019 September, 2019

"I think she really had the right to read the letter, that she was blocked, or at least temporarily blocked, from reading," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, pictured holding a transcript of her speech. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Sessions: Senate shouldn't have punished Warren over letter she 'persisted' in reading

Attorney General Jeff Sessions indicated Tuesday that his colleagues were wrong to punish Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for seeking to read a historical letter sharply criticizing him during Senate floor debate on his confirmation in February.

"She certainly had the right to criticize my nomination. I think she really had the right to read the letter that she was blocked, or at least temporarily blocked, from reading," Sessions said during a question-and-answer session following a speech at Georgetown University's law school.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted along party lines to rebuke the outspoken liberal Democrat and silence her for the remainder of the day after she repeatedly attempted to read a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King accusing Sessions of "reprehensible" conduct during an election fraud prosecution of Alabama civil rights leaders.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that because Sessions was a senator and a nominee, the criticism ran afoul of a rarely enforced rule barring personal criticism of another senator. His terse explanation of why Warren was being punished quickly went viral on the internet and became a rallying cry for liberal activists, who slapped the statement on t-shirts, bumper stickers and more.

"She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted," McConnell declared.

In his comments Tuesday, Sessions suggested the decision to strike Warren's words from the record and deny her the right to speak on the floor for the rest of that night amounted to an abandonment of the Senate's tradition of robust debate.

Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

"In general, the Senate is one of the most open debating forums in the history of the world," the attorney general said in comments that seemed more aligned with the reaction of Democratic senators than of most Republicans. "People feel that, and we should be very cautious before we constrict any member of the Senate from speaking on issues and in a way they choose."

A spokesman for McConnell did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman for Sessions, Sarah Isgur Flores, disputed that the attorney general had expressed disagreement with the Senate's decision to sanction Warren.

"You based [an] entire article on your interpretation of what the Attorney General said without reaching out in advance to ask if you were correct and without providing your readers the entirety of his comments so they could judge for themselves," Flores said.

An unabridged transcript of the exchange about Warren appears below.

MODERATOR [Prof. Randy Barnett, Georgetown University Law Center]: We got a speech-related question from students. And that is—it says this: as an advocate of free speech, how do you feel about the use of Senate Rule 19 to limit speech on the Senate floor during confirmation hearings [sic] as was done to Senator Warren when she was criticizing your nomination to be attorney general?

SESSIONS: Well, she certainly had a right to criticize my nomination. And I think she really had the right to read the letter that she was blocked or at least temporarily blocked from reading. The Senate Rule 19 says you should not—it was passed in 1902 after a fistfight broke out on the floor of the Senate—that you shouldn’t personally disparage another senator. So, I was both a senator and a nominee. So, it was a little bit—so, I wasn’t on the floor and I didn’t know anything about it.

I would just say that I think, in general, the Senate is one of the most open debating forums in the history of the world. Robert Byrd said there are two great Senates and one of them is the U.S. Senate. And people feel that. And we should be very cautious before we constrict any member of the Senate from speaking on issues and in a way they choose.

UPDATE (9:38 P.M.): This post has been updated with comment from Flores and with the transcript of Sessions' comments.