Sen. Elizabeth Warren appeared on The Daily Show Wednesday night and told Trevor Noah why she wouldn’t stop reading Coretta Scott King’s letter on the Senate floor
Warren was silenced on the floor of the Senate when she tried to read a letter that Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in about Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the time of his failed 1986 judicial nomination. When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made her stop, she continued reading the letter on a live stream outside the chamber.
“It’s a letter full of heart and its a letter full of advice to us. It talks about a moment in history when African Americans were beaten away from the polls, and it talks about Jeff Sessions’ role in that,” Warren said on the show. “I think that it has an important lesson today for all of America.”
Read More: The Fistfight Behind the Rule That Silenced Elizabeth Warren, as Described in 1902
Since she was silenced, many have rallied around Warren using McConnell’s wording, “She persisted.” When Noah asked Warren whether she or McConnell realized at the time “what a solid he’s done you,” Warren didn’t comment on his statement.
“Look, the main thing is that millions of people are now reading Coretta Scott King’s letter,” she had told him earlier.
Watch the full interview above.
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Write to Julia Zorthian at julia.zorthian@time.com