“Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech,” he said. “She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

If the Republican senators had intended to minimize Warren's message, the decision backfired — severely.

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Her supporters immediately seized upon McConnell's line — giving Warren a far bigger megaphone than if they had simply let her continue speaking in what had been a mostly empty chamber, some pointed out.

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“Thanks for the new battle cry,” one person tweeted.

As had been the case through a long, embittered presidential campaign (see: “basket of deplorables,” “nasty woman"), an off-the-cuff phrase meant to end a debate was instead turned into a badge of honor by the other side.

#ShePersisted, #LetLizSpeak and “Silencing Elizabeth Warren” were among Twitter's top trending topics in the United States by Wednesday morning.

Women in particular bristled at the sentiment — essentially, to sit down and stop talking — and noted it was hardly unfamiliar to them.

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On the heels of the furious tweets came the memes.

Soon, people were applying McConnell's trio of sentences to any notable situation — historical or fictional — in which women had been silenced.

The Suffragettes. Rosa Parks. Harriet Tubman. Malala Yousafzai. Even Princess Leia.

That Warren had been interrupted as she was reading a 1986 letter by Coretta Scott King, the wife of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., added extra insult to injury for many.