'Willing to be complicit': Booker yells at fellow Dems on Senate floor
WASHINGTON – New Jersey Democrat Sen. Cory Booker yelled at his colleagues in a rare occurrence on the Senate floor this week, arguing they were “complicit” with President Donald Trump and that his party “needs a wake-up call.”
The exchange occurred on July 29 as Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, sought to swiftly move a package of bipartisan bills that would increase resources and funding to police departments and officers. Booker objected to the package and offered an amendment that would require the administration to allocate public safety grants without political bias.
That ignited Cortez Masto’s ire, who complained that Booker hadn't raised his concerns when the bills passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he sits on, weeks ago. “This is ridiculous. This is an attempt to kill all of these bills,” she said.
Booker responded, “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.”
He also got into a heated back-and-forth with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, who told him that he couldn't just stop bills that come out of a committee and then "allow for other bills that fund other parts of your budget in your state." Booker said he it was wrong to imply that the police bills were not vital to his state.
“What I am tired of is when the president of the United States of America violates the Constitution, trashes our norms and traditions, and what does the Democratic party do?” he thundered on the Senate floor. “Comply? Allow him? Beg for scraps?”
"The Democratic party needs a wake-up call," he said.
Democrats have been divided about how to organize an effective resistance against Trump and break through the cracks of MAGA populism as the party is still recovering after a bruising 2024 election loss. Booker and other progressive Democrats have been urging their colleagues to be more vocal against the administration.
“If we don’t stand as Democrats, we deserve to lose. But if we stand united, if we stand strong, if we stand with other people, if we tell, with a chorus of conviction that, 'America, what this president is doing is wrong,' if we stand up and speak that way, dear God, we will win,” Booker said.
In April, Booker delivered a marathon 25-hour and five-minute speech on the Senate floor, railing against the Trump administration’s policies and actions. “These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such,” Booker said at the time.