Former Sen. Barb Mikulski criticized Republicans for the rebuke of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during the debate of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ nomination.
“This is going to have a long-lasting effect because the people who marched watched this, and I will tell you the women are tired that different rules are applied to us in a different way when we claim our power,” Mikulski told CNN.
Warren was silenced while reading a letter Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow, wrote in 1986 that voiced her concerns about Sessions’ nomination to be a federal judge.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell interrupted Warren and said she broke Senate rules by reading the statement and had “impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama.”
“Senator Warren was reading from a historic record, from quoting a historic person, it was relevant, it was reasonable, and I think whenever women stand up — and particularly reading now a letter from a woman of color — they are told to shut up and sit down,” Mikulski said.
Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in the history of Congress, has been a strong supporter for women’s issues. She was the first female Democrat from Maryland to be elected to the Senate in 1986. Before that, she served in the House of Representatives and represented this state’s 3rd District for 10 years.
The Senate voted 49-43 to uphold the ruling that Warren broke the rules. She was ordered to sit down and could not talk during the rest of the debate.
“I am surprised that the words of Coretta Scott King are not suitable for for debate in the United States Senate,” Warren said.
Sessions was sworn into office Thursday morning.
