Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) defended President Trump's nominee for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), on Wednesday following Tuesday night's incident when a Democratic colleague delivered a blistering speech against him on the Senate floor.
Cruz also blasted the Democratic Party for being the party more tied to historical racism in the U.S., including Jim Crow laws and the founding of the Ku Klux Klan.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) impugned Sessions' character as a defender of the law and equal justice in her speech, leading Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) to reprimand her.
"He made derogatory and racist comments that should have no place in our justice system," Warren said. "To put Sen. Sessions in charge of the Department of Justice is an insult to African Americans."
McConnell stopped Warren from speaking after she started reading a letter by the late Coretta Scott King, a civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King Jr., arguing that she was violating Senate Rule 19, which states that senators are not allowed to "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."
Cruz agreed with McConnell's decision in an interview with Fox News and called out Democrats for belonging to the party historically associated with racism.
"The Democrats are the party of the Ku Klux Klan," Cruz said. "You look at the most racist–you look at the Dixiecrats, they were Democrats who imposed segregation, imposed Jim Crow laws, who founded the Klan. The Klan was founded by a great many Democrats."
"Now, the Democrats accuse anyone they disagree with of being a racist. That was a false smear of Jeff Sessions, and I think he will make an extraordinary attorney general," Cruz added.
The Senate voted 50-43 on party-lines Tuesday night against Warren's appeal of the Rule 19 invocation, which means that she is barred from speaking on the floor about Sessions' nomination. A vote on Sessions' confirmation is expected Wednesday night.