Silencing Elizabeth Warren backfires on Senate GOP

[Independent voter]

The Senate's Mitch McConnell used some rule to shut her up, it's just going to make her more popular IMO.

Warren was complaining about Sessions the nominee for Attorney General.




http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/07/politi...rren-silenced/

Washington (CNN)The Senate has silenced Elizabeth Warren.
And by doing so, majority Republicans just handed the liberal firebrand a megaphone -- further elevating President Donald Trump's fiercest and most prominent critic in the Senate and turning her into a Democratic hero.
The rebuke of Warren came after the Massachusetts Democrat read a letter written 30 years ago by Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., opposing the nomination of Jeff Sessions for a federal judgeship.



Warren cited the letter during a debate on the nomination of Sessions -- now an Alabama senator -- as Donald Trump's attorney general. Reading from King's letter to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986, Warren said: "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."
Read the Coretta Scott King Letter
Republicans cried foul -- charging that Warren violated Senate rules against impugning another senator. A vote along party lines upheld that decision, turning what could have been an ordinary late-night partisan floor speech for political devotees into a national story.
"They can shut me up, but they can't change the truth," Warren later told CNN's Don Lemon.

The moment immediately galvanized the Democratic base. Weeks after the women's marches around the country turned out droves of anti-Trump protesters, Warren -- silenced by male senators for attempting to read a letter from a civil rights icon -- had given those women a new rallying point.
Adding fuel to the backlash, supporters noted the apparent hypocrisy that Warren's male colleagues were able to read from the letter uninterrupted. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico read the letter to enter it into the congressional record Wednesday morning and Sen. Jeff Merkley was allowed to read from King's letter Tuesday night, though he couched his remarks as only reading portions of the letter and with the context to be in line with Senate rules.
Warren is now forbidden from participating in the floor debate over Sessions' nomination ahead of a confirmation vote expected Wednesday.
"I literally can't be recognized on the floor of the Senate," she told Lemon. "I have become a nonperson during the discussion of Jeff Sessions."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended invoking Rule 19, a rarely used chamber regulation that prohibits senators from impugning each other.
"She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted," the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor, delivering an instantly classic line -- the kind liberals imagine being replayed ad nauseum in TV ads in a future presidential campaign.
Coretta Scott King Fast Facts
It couldn't have come at a better time for Warren, who is up for re-election in 2018. On Tuesday, she announced she hired an aide who is an expert on national security, a move that could help burnish her expertise in that area, as well as the publication of a new book, which will become available in April.
Liberals had been frustrated with Warren's vote in committee in favor of Ben Carson, Trump's nominee for secretary of Housing and Urban Development.


Coretta Scott King letter Elizabeth Warren was trying to read
No more.
By Tuesday night, the hashtag #LetLizSpeak was trending on Twitter. Millions of people had also watched on Facebook as Warren read the letter outside the Senate chamber.
MoveOn members contributed $250,000 to Warren's re-election campaign in about 12 hours.
Warren used Twitter to attack Sessions and McConnell.
"I will not be silent about a nominee for AG who has made derogatory & racist comments that have no place in our justice system," she wrote.
In a follow-up tweet, she said: "I will not be silent while the Republicans rubber stamp an AG who will never stand up to the @Potus when he breaks the law."
And then: "Tonight @SenateMajLdr silenced Mrs King's voice on the Sen floor - & millions who are afraid & appalled by what's happening in our country."

[KrazyK923]

I don't understand why she was silenced when the others were allowed to read the letter. I'm normally not on the whole sjw "patriarchy" bullshit, but this really look suspicious.

I guess McConnel cowardly decided to not try to silence another Dem Senator after he did Warren?

But Elizabeth Warrern sure as hell is the wrong person to try and censor.

[Kasierith]

I don't understand why she was silenced when the others were allowed to read the letter. I'm normally not on the whole sjw "patriarchy" bullshit, but this really look suspicious.

I guess McConnel cowardly decided to not try to silence another Dem Senator after he did Warren?

But Elizabeth Warrern sure as hell is the wrong person to try and censor.

I'm pretty sure that it's more that she is the most prominent voice of dissent fighting against McConnel, moreso than her gender. I hope so, at least. Maybe.

[Dextroden]

I'm pretty sure that it's more that she is the most prominent voice of dissent fighting against McConnel, moreso than her gender. I hope so, at least. Maybe.

Yeah. It reeks of personal spite.

[SupBrah]

People actually still care what Goofy Elizabeth "Dances with Donors" Warren has to say?

[Kalcheus]

People actually still care what Goofy Elizabeth "Dances with Donors" Warren has to say?

They especially do now

[Sky High]

Oh Mitch McConnell, of all the politicians in Washington I wish all the absolute worst for you.

[KrazyK923]

People actually still care what Goofy Elizabeth "Dances with Donors" Warren has to say?

dang roasted got her.

[SupBrah]

They especially do now

Why? She's been nothing but all-talk, no action since becoming a senator. The only thing she's good at is suckling the teat of wealthy special interest groups. Have people truly forgotten how she sold out by refusing to endorse Bernie because she didn't want to piss of her corporate donors who were bankrolling Hillary?

The last time people actually took her seriously was when she lied about being native american so she could take advantage of affirmative action programs at the expense of an actual native american.

[Bullettime]

I liked how she went outside the chamber and read the letter anyways while being recorded.

Whether you agree with Warren or not, trying to outright censor someone, especially someone as prominent as her and in this political climate, is a huge fucking mistake. All you do is give them even more ammunition and a bigger platform to preach.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

I don't think this is about gender - moreseo because she is the loudest voice of opposition.

[Kasierith]

Have people truly forgotten how she sold out by refusing to endorse Bernie because she didn't want to piss of her corporate donors who were bankrolling Hillary?

Oh, just another berniebro who didn't care about politics until an egotistical loon convinced him that he's a political expert. Might want to look more into politics beyond looking at sander's links on facebook before flinging stuff like this about, as there's a pretty significant reason why she's politically in the place she's in right now.

[Templar 331]

With turtle face's tone I was expecting a "get back in the kitchen." XD

It's not the first time he's shot himself in the foot.

[Kalcheus]

I don't think this is about gender - moreseo because she is the loudest voice of opposition.

It's not about gender, but it's going to be hard to do anything but portray it that way. McConnell would've been better off trying to Rule 19 at least one other Senator.

[Caolela]

This is just an opening salvo of what we're going to see from the regressive, reactionary right Trumpettes. They'll try to shut down any dissent, whether it comes from the press, activists, labor leaders, dissident intellectuals or Congress.

Steve Bannon told writer Ronald Radosh in 2013: “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”

They're already moving to make protest and dissent illegal. They'll soon have a majority on the Supreme Court to push their agenda through.

Some may think these are small things but it's very serious. This is how authoritarian fascism replaces democracy.

[KrazyK923]

Why? She's been nothing but all-talk, no action since becoming a senator. The only thing she's good at is suckling the teat of wealthy special interest groups. Have people truly forgotten how she sold out by refusing to endorse Bernie because she didn't want to piss of her corporate donors who were bankrolling Hillary?

The last time people actually took her seriously was when she lied about being native american so she could take advantage of affirmative action programs at the expense of an actual native american.

This is an impressive word salad.

Sanders would be ashamed of the bullshit you've barfed here. Her and Warren are close allies, despite what your asinine dividing tactics might imply.

[Jeezy911]

You know that feeling you have when you think about Donald Trump coming from the left? Well that's how the right feels about Fauxcahontas Warren. Her Speech is somehow more screeching than Hillary, she believes in late term abortion paid for by taxpayers with no restrictions, she believes that churches should provide Birth control, also that everyone should foot the bill for someone else's student loans. She is basically as far left as you can get, makes Bernie look like a Moderate.

[Bullettime]

Oh, just another berniebro who didn't care about politics until an egotistical loon convinced him that he's a political expert. Might want to look more into politics beyond looking at sander's links on facebook before flinging stuff like this about, as there's a pretty significant reason why she's politically in the place she's in right now.

Yeah people don't really look at the fact that Warren had absolutely nothing to gain by backing either party during the primary. She still needed the DNC support at the time but also didn't want to oppose Sanders either who later admitted that she agreed with many of his stances and has been working with him since. She did the correct thing and stayed literally silent, something absurd for her, during the primary race then backed the eventual winner.

[KrazyK923]

Its really telling when you see Trumpettes criticizing Warren and they use very gendered pejoratives. Barfing out bullshit about "screeching" and calling her "Fauxcahonats."

At least get original with your bullshit slurs. Curious that the responses to her being censored for criticizing somebody has been to not talk about how, regardless of how you feel about her, it was really fucking shady to do so, especially since others got to after her, but instead to hurl pejoratives like a 6th grader who just discovered 4chan.

[Bullettime]

I don't think this is about gender - moreseo because she is the loudest voice of opposition.

Warren's "brand" is also getting more and more stock through the opposition movement among the Dems with them finally unifying to an extent. McConnell had her silenced not because she's a woman but because she's the loudest voice of opposition and the fact that she's a top power name for the 2020 race, whether she runs herself or not.

But yeah, it's sad to see people attacking her gender with elementary school name calling when defending the GOP.