Demonstrators descended upon several homes owned by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Friday. The protests were in response to the senator’s refusal to allow Senator Elizabeth Warren to read Coretta Scott King’s 1986 statement about Jeff Sessions in the Senate. The letter from King was written to oppose Sessions’ nomination for a federal judgeship in 1986, and Warren had planned on reading it to fight his attorney general confirmation.
McConnell inadvertently gave people across the nation a protest tool when he used an obscure congressional rule to block Warren from reading King’s statement on Tuesday. McConnell said during the Senate session:
“Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
The statement became a rallying cry against Warren’s silencing. Hashtags such as #LetterToMitch and #ShePersisted popped up supporting her cause on social media. Demonstrators took it a step further by stopping by McConnell’s homes.
According to The Huffington Post, nearly 400 protestors showed up to McConnell’s Louisville, Kentucky home to protest, organized the Parents for Social Justice group. The demonstrators read the letter in unison in front of his home, with joining with signs:
About 400 people in front of @SenateMajLdr's house in Louisville to read a #LetterToMitch tonight pic.twitter.com/oapi7rNnHr
— Molly Shah (@MollyOShah) February 11, 2017
https://twitter.com/tkdcoach/status/830225048850018305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/AmyOlive/status/830223490565468164?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The protests didn’t stop in Kentucky. Others gathered outside his residence in Washington, D.C. where protestors also read the statement and left copies of it on his doorstep:
Pretty sizable crowd outside Mitch McConnell's house to hear Kings letter read pic.twitter.com/XxyPBq0KGV
— Rachel Sadon (@Rachel_Sadon) February 8, 2017
What Mitch McConnell will come home to tonight pic.twitter.com/rRxQpuJi90
— Rachel Sadon (@Rachel_Sadon) February 9, 2017
Organizers Ruth Eisenberg told Dcist that the goal of the event was not only to support Warren, but to protest Sessions’ nomination:
“The combination of the sexism of silencing one of the few female senators, and the fact that she was reading Coretta Scott King’s words, outraged me. Really what we’re trying to do is call attention to Jeff Sessions’ lack of fitness to be attorney general.”
It’s not known if McConnell was at either of residences during the protest. It is the latest in a string of public demonstrations that have highlighted the opening weeks of the Trump administration.
(Via The Huffington Post, DCist & Teen Vogue)