Yesterday, Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) visited Fox & Friends for a little Republican Rehab over his silencing of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on the floor of the Senate during the debate over then-Senator Jeff Sessions' confirmation as United States attorney general.
As you probably know by now, Warren was gagged with Senate Rule 19 that prohibits impugning another senator as she tried to read a letter from Coretta Scott King opposing Sessions' nomination to a federal judgeship in 1986. Daines was the senator who invoked the rule.
On Fox & Friends, Daines echoed the false Republican line that Donald Trump and the Republicans are the victims of “historic obstruction.” He complained, “President Trump has the fewest number of cabinet appointees confirmed than any president since George Washington.” Of course, Republicans deliberately obstructed everything they could from Barack Obama. But Kilmeade didn’t mention it.
“Temperatures are rising in the Senate,” Daines continued, “and it’s very important that we adhere to the rules of the United States Senate which is usually you have a civil discourse, civil conversations. And Rule 19 is very clear, you cannot impugn a sitting senator, and that’s what happened with Senator Warren and Jeff Sessions.”
Kilmeade seemed to question the political calculation: “Do you feel as though you could have just let her go and no one would have known the better?” he asked.
Translation: The Republicans’ heavy-handed tactic has backfired.
By Tuesday night, the hashtag #LetLizSpeak was trending on Twitter. Millions of people had also watched on Facebook as Warren read the letter outside the Senate chamber.
MoveOn members contributed $250,000 to Warren’s re-election campaign in about 12 hours.
[…]
Warren went straight from the Senate floor to a call-in appearance on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, a favorite of progressives. “I’ve been red-carded on Sen. Sessions. I’m out of the game of the Senate floor,” she told Maddow.
She also read King’s letter outside the Senate floor in a Facebook live video.
But Daines refused to acknowledge any error in judgment. “The institution does not belong to the senators, it belongs to the American people, and we must hold the Senate to a higher standard," he insisted. "The rule applies consistently for all United States senators.”
Well, except when it doesn’t. But Kilmeade did not mention that, either.
Watch it below, from the February 9, 2017 Fox & Friends.
