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The drama began when Warren, quoting a 30-year-old letter by civil rights leader Coretta Scott King, referred to the Alabama Republican as a “disgrace.” King’s letter was written in 1986, when Sessions was nominated to the federal bench but was never confirmed.
King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., also wrote that when acting as a federal prosecutor, Sessions used his power to “chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.”
Warren’s reference drew the ire of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said that Warren had “impugned the motives of our colleague from Alabama.”