Senate votes to shut up Elizabeth Warren Almost instantly, social media propelled the episode into a national storyline.

The Senate voted late Tuesday to tell Sen. Elizabeth Warren to sit down — and shut up.

The Republican-controlled chamber voted 49-43 to uphold a ruling that the Massachusetts Democrat violated Senate rules that prohibit impugning another senator as she delivered a lengthy speech against the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as the nation’s attorney general.


The rare rebuke against Warren, a hero on the left, added another extraordinary layer of tension in the contentious battle to install Sessions at the Justice Department and the broader fight over President Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees.

And rather than quieting Warren, the episode sparked by a dispute over arcane Senate rules only served to elevate her cause.

The issue: During her remarks, Warren referred to a letter written by Coretta Scott King and sent to the Senate in 1986, when the chamber was debating whether to confirm Sessions to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench.

In her letter, first reported by the Washington Post, King urged the Senate three decades ago to reject Sessions’ bid to become a judge.

“Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge,” King wrote in her letter back then, which Warren read on the Senate floor Tuesday night. “This simply cannot be allowed to happen.”

But as Warren said those words, Republicans took offense. First, she was warned by the presiding officer — at the time, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) — that she was violating Senate rules against impugning another senator.

Warren protested, saying she was merely repeating the words of King. But she was allowed to continue to talk, so she did, and Warren finished reading King's letter.

"Mrs. King's views and words ring true today," Warren said. "The integrity of our Justice Department depends on an attorney general who will fight for the rights of all people. An honest evaluation of Jeff Sessions' record shows that he is not that person."

But a little while later as Warren continued to speak, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came to the floor.

“The senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama,” McConnell said, referring to Warren’s recitation of the part of King’s letter that warned Sessions would “chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.”

Warren insisted that she was “surprised” that reading King’s letter would not be appropriate debate in the chamber and asked for permission to continue speaking.

McConnell objected to that request from Warren, which was upheld in the GOP-controlled chamber. Warren immediately appealed that ruling so she could finish her speech against Sessions, but the Senate voted along party lines to shut down that appeal.

Now, she can no longer talk until the floor fight over Sessions’ nomination is over. His confirmation vote is expected Wednesday evening.

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

But almost instantly, social media propelled the episode into a national storyline. The hashtag #LetLizSpeak began trending on Twitter. And a Facebook Live video of Warren reading King's letter again — this time, from outside the Senate chamber — rapidly amassed 1.9 million views as of midnight Wednesday.

Senate Democrats tried to allow Warren to finish speaking against Sessions, using a motion to permit the Massachusetts senator to proceed. But that was, again, denied by Republican senators.

“The suggestion that reciting the words of the great Coretta Scott King would invoke Rule 19 and force Senator Warren to sit down and be silenced is outrageous," Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said.