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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was stopped from speaking on the Senate floor about Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions on Feb. 7. "I am surprised that the words of Coretta Scott King are not suitable for debate in the United States Senate," Warren said. (Reuters)

Senate Republicans passed a party-line rebuke Tuesday night of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for a speech opposing attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, striking down her words for impugning the Alabama senators character.

In an extraordinarily rare move, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) interrupted Warrens speech in a near-empty chamber, as debate on Sessionss nomination heads toward a Wednesday evening vote, and said that she had breached Senate rules by reading past statements against Sessions from figures such as the late senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and the late Coretta Scott King.

The senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama, McConnell said, then setting up a series of roll-call votes on Warrens conduct.

[Read the letter Coretta Scott King wrote opposing Sessionss 1986 federal nomination]

It was the latest clash in the increasingly hostile debate over confirming President Trumps Cabinet, during which Democrats have accused Republicans of trying to force through nominees without proper vetting. Democrats, unable to stop the confirmations that require simple majorities, have countered by using extreme delay tactics that have dragged out the process longer than any in history for a new presidents Cabinet.

The Democratic moves, including boycotting committee room votes on nominees last week and a round-the-clock debate Monday night before Tuesdays confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, reached a boiling point during the debate over Sessions which Democrats continued overnight.

In setting up the votes to rebuke Warren, McConnell specifically cited portions of a letter that King, the widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to Sessionss 1986 nomination to be a federal judge.

[Trumps pick for attorney general is shadowed by race and history]

Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens, King wrote, referencing controversial prosecutions at the time that Sessions servedas the U.S. attorney for Alabama. Earlier, Warren read from the 1986 statement of Kennedy, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee who led the opposition then against Sessions, including the Massachusetts Democrats concluding line: He is, I believe, a disgrace to the Justice Department and he should withdraw his nomination and resign his position.

The Senate voted, 49 to 43, strictly on party lines, to uphold the ruling that Warren violated Rule 19 of the Senate that says 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. Pursuant to that rule, Warren was ordered to sit down and forbidden from speaking during the remainder of the debate on the nomination of Sessions.

I am surprised that the words of Coretta Scott King are not suitable for debate in the United States Senate, Warren said after McConnells motion.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), a freshman who was presiding over the Senate at the time, issued a warning to Warren at that point, singling out Kennedys disgrace comment, and 25 minutes later McConnell came to the floor and set in motion the battle, citing the comments in the King letter as crossing the line.

Warrens speech ended with a simple admonition from Daines: The senator will take her seat.

McConnell later defended his decision.

Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation, he said. Nevertheless, she persisted.

[The silencing of Elizabeth Warren and an old Senate rule prompted by a fistfight]

Overnight into early Wednesday, other Democratic senators continued speaking out against Sessions on the Senate floor and Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) read parts of Kings 10-page letter but not the excerpts Warren had read aloud.

Other Democrats, including Kamala Harris (Calif.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), had come to Warrens defense by trying to have Kings entire letter placed into the Senate record or to allow Warren to continue participating. But Republican senators objected.

Warren, a liberal firebrand with a devoted national following whom some activists want to run for president in 2020, quickly took to social media and the airwaves to attack McConnell and Republicans for shutting down her speech.

Banned from reading Kings letter on the Senate floor, Warren instead went to a nearby room and read it aloud on Facebook Live.

After Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) struck down Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) attempt to read a letter from Coretta Scott King on the floor of the Senate during the debate on attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, Warren read the letter outside the doors of the Senate and streamed it live. (Facebook/Sen. Elizabeth Warren)

In a brief telephone interview with MSNBCs The Rachel Maddow Show, a program watched loyally by many Warren devotees, she explained that Ive been red-carded on Sen. Sessions, Im out of the game of the Senate floor. I dont get to speak at all.

Public reaction intensified online. RedBubble.com, an online clothing website for independent designers, began selling a She Persisted T-shirt or sweatshirt seizing on McConnells admonition of Warren. Democrats began using #LetLizSpeak on Twitter and posted copies of Kings letter on Facebook to draw more attention to Warrens speech.

Read more:

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Trumps hard-line actions have an intellectual godfather: Jeff Sessions

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Republicans vote to rebuke Elizabeth Warren, saying she impugned Sessions's character - Washington Post