Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may have intended to silence Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday when he invoked a rare rule to end her speaking on the hearing of Jeff Sessions, but he really did quite the opposite.
In the interest of trying to quell debate and dissent from one of the Senate’s most talented orators, McConnell dug up an obscure rule that has not be evoked in decades – Rule 19. The rule basically makes it impossible for one Senator to assert that another Senator is unfit for their position, or that they have engaged in “unbecoming” conduct.
In bringing about a vote to silence Warren under the obscure Senate Rule 19, McConnell brought so much more attention to the topic Warren was covering, and drew thousands more to read the letter she was trying to read – one written by Coretta Scott King 20 years ago.
In the letter, King expresses her personal views of Sessions, sharing the reasons why she considered him too racist to be considered for a federal judgeship. Thanks to King’s letter and other testimony, Sessions was deemed too racially biased to be a federal judge. Now here we are decades later, considering him for one of the highest legal positions in the nation.
Quickly, word spread that Warren had been unfairly silenced. Progressives demanded that Warren be allowed to speak and McConnell was forced to issue a statement defending his decision.
“Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech,” McConnell explained. “She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
“Nevertheless, she persisted.”
Such powerful words – such a rallying cry. At least that is what it is now.
For Warren and so many others, this is the phrase we will long remember. This is the perfect way to describe the persistent, tireless advocacy from figures like Warren – women who are tired of being told to sit down and shut up when they are fighting for what’s right.
2020 is a long way away, and Warren has a lot of work to do to earn a Democratic presidential nomination, but at least she won’t have to work to come up with a campaign slogan for herself.
“Nevertheless, she persisted.”
