You guys. I am dyyyyyying.
Spartacus Booker came out of hiding today on the Senate floor to go after Democrats, accusing them of being complicit with President Donald Trump.
Booker aimed his anger at Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Catherine Cortez-Masto over bills that fund police departments.
I’m confused by my colleague, because she knows I don’t object to her two bills. She’s going to be coming here to offer her two bills in a second so I don’t know what the confusion is there.I object to the bills that are putting resources out that states from California to New York are not eligible for because of the actions of this President.The second thing my colleague confuses me is saying I had my chance. Well actually I didn’t. The regularly scheduled Judiciary Committee hearing wrapped up, and then a hastily one was put back together. I had no notice of that, no ability to plan for it, and had a conflict.This, to me, is the problem with Democrats in America right now is we’re willing to be complicit, to Donald Trump, to let this pass through when we have all the leverage. Right now, there is to say, if you’re as passionate about police as we are, then pass bills out of this body that will help the police officers in Washington, that will help the police officers in Illinois, that will help the police officers in New Jersey, that will help the police officers in Newark.Don’t be complicit to the president United States, who doesn’t understand that language. Oh, please, oh, please don’t hurt blue states. We are standing at a moment where our president is eviscerating the Constitution of the United States of America, and we’re willing to go along with that today. No, no, not on my watch. I stand against this. It is a violation of our Constitution for the President of the United States to ignore the will of Congress and decide which states are eligible to grant and which are not. Well, we know something in New York and New Jersey.I was a Newark elected official when 911 happened. I saw my first responders charging in to those buildings. I know what police officers do every day. My amendment was just called the poison pill. That’s ridiculous. Well, my amendment was it says the police officers in New Jersey are just as important as the police officers in North or South Dakota. It says the police officers in New York are just as important as a police officers in Texas, it says the police officers in California are just import as important as the police officers in Alabama.Why would we go along with a president who is violating our constitution time and time again, when in the history of this body, Democrats and Republicans used to stand up for their turf, these could easily pass, put a simple amendment that says, You know what, you can play games however you want President Trump. But when it comes to resources for police officers, no games today.I stand and fight for the Constitution. I stand and fight against this President and Heck, yeah, I’m going to stand and fight for the police officers from the great state of New Jersey.
Klobuchar responded:
Sen KLOBUCHAR coming out hard against Sen BOOKER for objecting to bipartisan legislation to provide resources for police departments, says: “They passed the Judiciary Committee unanimously. And I can’t help it if someone couldn’t change their schedule to be there, I think that these hearings should mean something and that people should be saying the same thing they say on Police Week, when those people are sitting out there in the uniform who have lost loved ones, as they say on this Senate floor.”
Booker brings up an old friend who served as a police officer who committed suicide:
Sen BOOKER responds, saying, “I don’t need lectures about the urgency of this. One of my childhood best friends, a police officer in a small town in New Jersey after a hard day’s work before he even went home to see his family, died by suicide. I don’t need somebody implying in any way that this is not vital to me and my state, that we have resources for our police officers.”
The Democratic Party needs a wake up call.I see law firms bending a knee to this President, not caring about the larger principles that those free speech rights that you could take on any client. Why are you bending the knee? I see universities that should be bastions of free speech bending at the knee to this President. I see businesses taking late night talk show hosts off the air because they dare to insult a president. I see people who want mergers suddenly think that they have to pay tribute to this President.And what are the very people here elected to defend the Constitution of the United States saying, “Oh, well, today let’s look the other way and pass some resources that won’t go to Connecticut, that won’t go to Illinois, that won’t go to New York, that will go to the States he likes.”That is complicity with an authoritarian leader who is trashing our Constitution. It’s time for Democrats have a backbone. It’s time for us to fight. It’s time for us to draw lines, and when it comes to the safety of my state being denied these grants, that’s why I’m standing here.Don’t question my integrity. Don’t question my motives. I’m standing for Jersey. I am standing for my police officers, I’m standing for the Constitution, and I’m standing for what’s right.And dear God, if you want to come up be that way, you’re going to have to take it up with me, because there’s too much on the line right now in America as people’s due process rights and freedom of the speech rights and secret police are running around this country picking people up off the streets who have a legal right to be here.There’s too much going on in this country. When are we going to stand together for principles that I just heard that were agreed with? When are we going to stand together? If we don’t stand as Democrats, we deserve to lose. But if we stand united, if we stand strong, we stand with other people, if we tell with a chorus of conviction in America what this President is doing is wrong, if we stand up and speak that way, dear God, we will win, like all of those people at our ancestors who joined hands together and said, “We shall overcome.”No Not on my watch, I’m protecting Jersey. Today, I’m protecting our constitution today.
According to Andrew Desiderio at Punchbowl News, the Democrats are not happy.
In fact, they are p*ssed at Booker.
Then as Booker left the floor:
Cory Booker is heated as he exits Senate floor. Says Klobuchar/CCM were “enabling Donald Trump to do a broadside attack on my state.”“There’s a lot of us in this caucus that want to fucking fight. And what’s bothering me right now is we don’t see enough fight in this caucus.“
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