MLK’s niece says Elizabeth Warren is improperly taking advantage of King name

Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., believes her family name is being used to "stir up the emotions" after one Democratic senator was silenced for reading a letter by Coretta Scott King, the late wife of Martin Luther King, during her criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) read from Coretta Scott King's letter about Sessions: "Sen. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote of black citizens." Warren was subsequently interrupted, informed that she broke the rules of decorum in the Senate and told to sit down.

She was charged by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) with breaking rule 19, which states that senators may not "directly or indirectly, by any form of words, impute to another senator or to other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator."

"She wrote a powerful letter about an important moment in history that directly involved Jeff Sessions and is directly relevant to the question of whether Jeff Sessions ought to be the attorney general of the United States — and Mitch McConnell didn’t want me to read that letter," Warren said in defense of her reading of Coretta Scott King's letter, according to Fox Business.

But Alveda King sees it differently. She told Fox's Neil Cavuto Wednesday that Warren, in her view, was using the King name to her advantage.

"In that letter [Coretta Scott King] would be referring to some of [Sen. Jeff Sessions] comments," Alveda King said. "However, she would agree today that he of course ended some [school segregation and] he worked to prosecute members of the KKK."

"It’s almost like a bait and switch, stir up the emotions, in the name of King — and my name is Alveda King — ... [and] play the race card, which she was attempting to do," she added.

Democrats banded together, continuing to read Coretta Scott King's letter from the Senate floor Wednesday, following the kerfuffle between Warren and McConnell.

Alveda King said, while the issue is certainly divisive in Washington, D.C., it has not caused any problems within the King family.

"We are taking a look at many things that Mrs. Coretta Scott King said, Martin Luther King Jr., my daddy A.D. King," she told Cavuto. "But our family — we are peacemakers, we bring people together, … we do not divide people."

Sessions was confirmed as the attorney general on Wednesday by a party-line vote of 52-47.