Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) tried to denigrate one of her Republican colleagues on Tuesday night using the words of the late Coretta Scott King, but a video from December 2000 tells another story.
Senate Democrats spent Tuesday night voicing their opposition to President Trump's attorney general nominee, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.). While many of their speeches focused on policy, Warren delivered a personal speech against Sessions' character.
"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."
She then started reading a 1986 letter that King, a civil rights activist and wife of the late Martin Luther King Jr., wrote opposing Sessions, before being cut off by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) for violating Senate Rule 19. The rule 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."
Warren tried to attack Sessions using the letter, but she forgot to mention a crucial detail of the Sessions-King relationship.
In 2000, Sessions attached an amendment to an appropriations bill which secured $1 million to Alabama's Rosa Parks Library, Museum ,and Learning Center at the Troy State University Montgomery Campus. He believed this funding would be a great way to memorialize Parks' accomplishments in the civil rights movement.
"We're spending billions of dollars on parks and recreation every year and a one-time appropriation to help Troy State University create this museum would be a good expenditure," Sessions said in statement.
King thanked Sessions at the dedication of the Rosa Parks Library and Museum.
King's niece, Alveda C. King, came to Sessions' defense on Wednesday and accused Warren of playing the "race card" by using the King family name against him, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
"She would agree today that he of course ended some school desegregation. He worked to prosecute members of the KKK. Aunt Coretta was a very reasonable woman and she, with integrity, would have noted that he had done some great work in fighting against discrimination," King said.
"It’s almost like a bait and switch. Stir up their emotions, use the name of King—and my name is Alveda King—stir up people’s emotions, play the race card, which she was attempting to do," King added.