New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker scolded fellow Democrats Tuesday for not having enough “backbone” to resist President Donald Trump in a fiery floor exchange that took place as colleagues sought to pass bipartisan police-related bills.
“What I am tired of is when the president of the United States violates the Constitution … and what does the Democratic Party do? Comply? Allow him? Beg for scraps?” Booker said. “No, I demand justice.”
The bills in question are aimed at equipping police with trauma kits and protecting certain family death benefits, and Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada sought to pass them by unanimous consent.
But Booker sought to offer an amendment requiring the Trump administration to distribute public safety resources among red and blue states without political bias — a request that threatened to upend the bill’s quick passage.
Klobuchar and Masto both criticized Booker for bringing up his concerns on the floor instead of raising them earlier in the Judiciary Committee, which approved the bills unanimously.
Amid the unusual intraparty sparring, Booker warned his colleagues not to question his “integrity.” He later told reporters he didn’t raise concerns in committee because Trump’s threats to withhold federal funding from states that don’t comply with the administration’s immigration agenda came only after the bills advanced out of the panel in April.
Booker, who delivered a record-breaking 25-hour floor speech earlier this year, went on to criticize his party in general for not opposing Trump and the GOP more fiercely. Tuesday’s floor confrontation came as Republicans are pressuring Senate Democrats to consent to the quick approval of dozens of Trump nominees.
“There’s a lot of us in this caucus that want to fucking fight,” Booker told reporters. “And what’s bothering me right now is we don’t see enough fight in this caucus.”
Cortez Masto afterward said she was “disappointed” by Booker’s protest and rejected the suggestion Democrats were not fighting hard enough.
“I come from a swing state and have beat back opponents to win my state and take on Donald Trump,” she said. “So it really is, to me, about how we work together to keep our communities safe and pass bipartisan, unanimous legislation that really came out of his committee, and that’s where our focus should be.”
Booker did not ultimately object on the floor, and the bills passed by unanimous consent.
Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
