Following his nomination in February as the US Attorney General during which Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) was shut down by the Republican dominated Senate for trying to criticise his nomination, Jeff Sessions has indicated on Tuesday that his colleagues were wrong to punish Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for seeking to read a historical letter sharply criticizing him.

“She certainly had the right to criticize my nomination. I think she really had the right to read the letter that she was blocked, or at least temporarily blocked, from reading,” Sessions said during a question-and-answer session following a speech at Georgetown University’s law school.

The Senate voted along party lines to rebuke the Warren and silence her for the remainder of the day after she repeatedly attempted to read a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King accusing Sessions of “reprehensible” conduct during an election fraud prosecution of Alabama civil rights leaders.

In addition, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-Ky) argued that because Sessions was a senator and a nominee, the criticism ran afoul of a rule barring personal criticism of another senator.

“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” McConnell said.

Sessions in his comments Tuesday, suggested the decision to strike Warren’s words from the record and deny her the right to speak on the floor for the rest of that night tantamount to an abandonment of the Senate’s tradition of robust debate.

“In general, the Senate is one of the most open debating forums in the history of the world. People feel that, and we should be very cautious before we constrict any member of the Senate from speaking on issues and in a way they choose”, Sessions added.

Adegbite Adedotun