On February 7, 2017, Senator Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans silenced Senator Elizabeth Warren from reading out loud the late Coretta Scott King's 1986 letter concerning the qualifications of Trump's Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions. The letter called into question Sessions' record on voter rights, specifically as concerns black voters, in the context of his nomination to a federal district court judge seat in Alabama. Senator Warren was barred from reading aloud the relevant words of Martin Luther King Jr's widow by Rule 19.

As reported by the Washington Post today, "The mechanism used to silence Warren is known as Rule 19, an arcane and seldom invoked provision in the rules of the Senate. The rule states that senators may not 'directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.'"

Just a few hours later, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley was able to read Mrs. King's letter on the floor without interruption or penalty. This calls into question why a female member of the Senate was censored and barred by the GOP, and yet the same action by her male colleague did not provoke the same results under Rule 19. 

Senator McConnell owes an apology to Senator Warren and to the late Mrs. King whose memory and contributions to our country he dishonored last night. He alleges Senator Warren was punished because "she persisted," and so those named below will persist in demanding an apology of Senator McConnell.