sit down is almost painful. the idea that a senator is above criticism, when you nominate a senator for a cabinet position, his colleagues can criticize him is kind of elitist. and he didn t just silence elizabeth warren, he silenced coretta scott king. and jeff sessions was not a senator when these comments were made about him. they re comments that came in the unfortunate senate nomination for judgeship where he was rejected by a republican senate. so the idea that these words that moved a republican majority senate in 1986 are now not fit to be spoken. and she wasn t just prohibited from continuing that statement, she s prohibited from making any statement through the rest of the debate on sessions.
exhibiting the kind of profound indifference to the racial contours of the jeff session nomination that i wouldn t have expected from somebody as savvy as mitch mcconnell. if they did that on purpose to be racially provocative, to stir you racial currents here, i think that s scary and gross. if they did it accidentally, i think it s political malpractice. but i think they ve just turned this issue and elizabeth warren and the jeff sessions nomination into a much hotter, more hotly contested and sort of scarier thing that it s been up until now. it was remarkable. do you think it changes any votes? that s my last question. i don t know. we ve seen a lot of republicans say they were willing to support jeff sessions, joe mancion.
years. you don t do it through these blanket bans. and there s no real reason from a national security perspective to do it in this way. and worse, ari, this is what came out in their filing, it would hand isis a major victory, so it could make our country less safe. jeremy bash, as always, appreciate your expertise. coming up, more on the breaking news. the dramatic turn of events with republicans formally rebuking elizabeth warren and she was quoting coretta scott king.
justice. i think that may have been senator [ inaudible ] who said that. although i would be grlad to repeat it in my own words. so quoting senator kennedy, calling them nominee sessions a disgrace is a violation of senate rules? it was certainly not in 1986. in the opinion of the chair it is. so let me understand then the senator is warned. that is certainly an unusual event on the senate floor and one that has some differing precedent, which we will get to. to show you what happened, senator warren interrupted again, this time by senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. mr. president the majority leader. the senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from alabama as warned about the the chair, said
now, moments ago she spoke out on this. this was her first interview or really public statement of any kind off what again was very unusual on the senate floor. this is an unusual circumstance in the sense that you have the conduct of a senator about remarks of another senator who is also, obviously, up for confirmation. so there s more than one thing going on. here s how she explained it in this new interview with rachel maddow. reading that letter out loud, according to mitch mcconnell, impugned senator sessions and therefore i got gavelled and was forced to sit down and i am not allowed to speak on the floor of the senate. i m not allowed to speak so long as the topic is senator jeff sessions. wow. i ve been red carded on senator sessions. for more on this developing news, i m joined by joan walsh and jonathan walter. joan? it s unbelievable. i mean, to see her being told to