Jeff Merkley reads same letter aloud as Elizabeth Warren; sexist coward Mitch McConnell silent
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did more on Tuesday evening than improperly censure one of his colleagues who was merely attempting to read a letter aloud that was already in the congressional record. And he did more than merely turn the powerful Elizabeth Warren into an enemy. He followed it up by revealing the extent of his sexism – and his cowardice – when Warren’s colleague Jeff Merkley grabbed the letter and began reading it aloud himself.
What did the all powerful Mitch McConnell do when Senator Jeff Merkley began reading the same Coretta Scott King letter aloud that Senator Elizabeth Warren had been reading? Nothing at all. McConnell had improperly used a technicality to silence Warren, by claiming that she was trying to disparage her fellow Senator Jeff Sessions, whose merits were being debated with regard to his nomination as Donald Trump’s Attorney General. McConnell could have invoked the same technicality to silence Jeff Merkley. But instead he let it play out unabated.
Merkley, for his part, made clear that he was outraged at how McConnell had treated Warren. Perhaps McConnell merely realized that he was going to have to censure every Democrat in the Senate one by one if he kept trying to prevent the letter from being read, and caved. But his improper attack on Elizabeth Warren was sexist in nature to begin with – and his subsequent decision to allow her male colleague to carry out the same behavior stands out as stunning.
Moreover, we all know why Mitch McConnell is abusing his role as Senate Majority Leader to protect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees: his own wife Elaine Chao is one of them, having been nominated by Trump as Secretary of Transportation. McConnell has already been exposed for trying to quash a CIA report during the election that Russia was rigging the contest in Trump’s favor. And now McConnell is bending over so far backward to protect Trump that he’s not even trying to hide his sexism. McConnell’s office can be reached at phone number (202) 224-2541.
