Sen. Jeff Flake on Wednesday said there should be “decorum” on the U.S. Senate floor, after Republicans voted Tuesday to rebuke Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren as she was protesting the nomination of fellow Sen. Jeff Sessions to be the next attorney general.
“We have rules of decorum in the Senate, just like in the House of Representatives — Rule 19. It’s been in effect for more than a hundred years,” Mr. Flake, Arizona Republican, said on “Fox & Friends.”
“So you don’t impugn another member’s character, and I think it’s a good rule,” he said.
Mr. Flake, a former House member, said one time when he was discussing the Cuban travel ban, another Republican said he just wanted it lifted so he could drink mojitos on the beach.
“Of course, I’m Mormon. I don’t drink mojitos. Somebody stood up and said those words ought to be taken down, and they were,” he said.
“So we’ve had these rules, and they’re employed and they should be,” he said. “We ought to have decorum on the Senate floor.”
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Republicans voted to rebuke Mrs. Warren on Tuesday, saying she impugned Mr. Sessions’ character. That means she could not continue her floor speech protesting his nomination.
Democrats said Mrs. Warren was simply quoting the words of Coretta Scott King, the late wife of Martin Luther King Jr., who wrote in a letter when Mr. Sessions had been up for a federal judgeship that he had worked to “chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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