The White House spokesman has suggested that if she were still alive, the widow of Martin Luther King, may have supported Donald Trump's controversial pick for Attorney General, Jeff Sessions.

Earlier this week, the US Senate was the scene of high drama when Senator Elizabeth Warren was prevented from reading a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King, in which she said Mr Sessions - at the time the state prosecutor for Alabama who had been nominated to serve as a federal judge - “used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens”. The nomination of Mr Sessions was eventually defeated.

Mr Spicer was asked about the incident involving Ms Warren, who was told she was technically in violation of Senate rules for “impugning the motives” of Mr Sessions. Observers pointed out that senators frequently said far worse and that several male senators were able to read the famous letter.

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Mr Spicer told reporters “if she was still with us today”, Ms King, who died in 2006, may have changed her mind about Mr Sessions.

“We have a lot of respect for her and the sacrifices that she made and the sacrifices that frankly she endured in her life,” he said, according to the Associated Press.

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“But I would respectfully disagree with her assessment of Senator Sessions then and now.”

He added: “His record on civil and voting rights I think is outstanding and like the late Arlen Specter I can only hope that if she was still with us today that after getting to know him and to see his record and commitment to civil rights that she would share the same view that Senator Specter did.”

That was a reference to comments made by Arlen Specter years after he voted against Mr Sessions' appointment to the bench that he regretted that vote.

“He has been a tireless advocate of voting and civil rights throughout his career and I would just hope that if she was still with us today that she would share the sentiments of former Senator Specter.”