February 9, 2017

Elizabeth Warren Blasts GOP for Silencing Reading of Coretta Scott King Letter

The Massachusetts senator makes a surprise appearance on the “Daily Show.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined The Daily Show on Wednesday to condemn Republicans for suppressing her reading of a letter written by Coretta Scott King that criticized Sen. Jeff Sessions’ civil rights record. The letter, which was written in 1986 to oppose Sessions’ appointment to the federal bench, has been read by millions of people since Warren was formally silenced from reciting it on the Senate floor the day before.

“The main thing is that millions of people are now reading Coretta Scott King’s letter,” Warren said during her surprise appearance. “It is an amazing letter. It is a letter full of passion. It is a letter full of heart, and it is 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 and I think it has an important lesson for all Americans.”

Warren continued by slamming her Republican colleagues for attempting to recast Sessions’ history on civil rights—a strategy the GOP has used throughout his confirmation process to become the next attorney general of the United States.

“You notice the Republicans are not saying ‘hey, those are the facts or something has changed,'” she said. “What they’re saying is ‘You don’t get to talk about that.'”

Moments after Warren’s appearance, Sessions was officially confirmed as the next attorney general.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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