Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Senate Republicans Wednesday of a double standard after invoking a rare Senate rule to shut down Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s criticism of Sen. Jeff Sessions on the Senate floor.
“Anyone who watches the Senate floor on a daily basis can tell you what happened last night is the most selective enforcement of Rule XIX,” Schumer said Wednesday.
Schumer mentioned an unnamed GOP senator’s decision to call former Minority Leader Harry Reid’s leadership “cancerous,” and accuse Reid of not caring “about the safety of our troops.”
“That was enforced as a rule XIX violation but reading a letter from Coretta Scott King — that was too much?” Schumer questioned.
He went on to recall other disparaging GOP comments toward other senators, including one in which Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of lying to the press.
“Why was my friend from Massachusetts cut off, when these other much more direct, much nastier attacks were disregarded?” he asked. “There is a shocking double standard here when it comes to speech.”
Sessions is expected to be confirmed today after an all-night talk-a-thon by Democrats Tuesday night in which Warren was one of several Democrats arguing against his nomination.
Republicans used Rule XIX of the standing rules of the Senate, which prohibits the impugning of another senator’s motives on the Senate floor, to shut down Warren and prevent her from making further comment about Sessions during the debate.
