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Women just can’t seem to get a win in Donald Trump’s America. And according to the Senate, they shouldn’t even speak.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was silenced on Tuesday after attempting to read a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King. Yes, that Coretta Scott King – late activist and wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The letter criticized Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama ahead of the final vote on his nomination as attorney general, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was not having it.

He objected to the letter on the grounds of Rule XIX, which prohibits any senator from “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.”

This is the Coretta Scott King letter that got Elizabeth Warren silenced on the Senate floor, Entity reports.

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s reading of this Coretta Scott King letter got her silenced on the Senate floor.

It was claimed that Senator Warren was impugning her peer, meaning she was calling into question the truth, validity or honesty of Sessions. It’s funny, because questioning someone’s motives seems like exactly what you should be doing when you’re vetting a potential attorney general.

But the Senate did not agree, with a 49 to 43 vote supporting McConnell, and effectively silencing Warren on the Senate floor until the vote on Sessions is complete.

So while technically it wasn’t her sex that got her silenced, Warren – a woman – did lose her ability to debate after reading another prominent woman’s letter… which criticized a man. Democrats also argued that Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas – both men – had also tested the boundaries of the rule before, without being silenced. Pretty bleak.

Following the ridiculous ruling, Warren took to Twitter to share her frustration, writing that McConnell had “silenced Mrs. King’s voice.” She also shared the full letter on her Facebook account, where it garnered over 130,000 shares and over 75,000 comments.

The hashtag “#LetLizSpeak” was also trending on Twitter, where many shared the letter from Mrs. King that Warren had been banned from reading.

Looks like Mrs. King’s message was heard loud and clear after all.

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