Politics
WATCH: Chaos Erupts As Senate Dems Trade Insults: ‘COMPLICIT’
The Democratic Party’s Senate conference is currently at odds after Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) erupted into a tirade against a number of his colleagues over what he referred to as support for the Trump Administration.
Booker has argued that support for the legislation is part of a “poison pill” aligned with President Donald Trump’s policies, including tax cuts. The New Jersey lawmaker also argued that it will lead to cuts to social programs and disproportionate spending on police resources between blue and red states.
“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 can 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,” Booker ranted on the Senate floor.
He then took aim at his Democrat colleagues in a move that has fiercely divided the conference, according to reports.
“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 to have a backbone. It’s time for us to fight. It’s time for us to draw lines,” Booker continued.
He went on to state that Democrats “deserve to lose” if they continue on their current path. “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.”
According to a report from Punchbowl News, Booker delivered even more forceful remarks against his colleagues behind closed doors. “There’s a lot of us in this caucus that want to F***ING fight! And what’s bothering me right now is we don’t see enough fight in this caucus,” the senator reportedly said.
He accused Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) of “enabling Donald Trump to do a broadside attack on my state,” suggesting they were complicit in allowing Trump’s policies to harm blue states.
According to Punchbowl News reporter Max Cohen, Booker was “heated” when he exited the Senate floor. “The Democratic Party was about to give Donald Trump tens of millions of dollars when he has already told the Democratic Party, ‘I’m not gonna let blue states have this,'” Booker told the outlet.
“Booker: “They were about to be complicit to the very things they say out of another side of their mouth that they object to. Democrats need to learn to fight and fight [Trump] and stop him from hurting people. In this case, he would have hurt police officers in half the states”
The report comes as Senate Democrats remain divided on their best strategy to regain control of the chamber ahead of a very unfavorable map in 2028. Of the three toss-up seats identified by Cook Political Report, two are held by Democrats (Michigan, Georgia), while the party will also be facing an uphill battle to flip the seat in North Carolina following the retirement of Thom Tillis.
Seats in Minnesota and New Hampshire, both of which are held by retiring Democrats, also received a “lean D” rating from Cook, while only the seat held by Susan Collins (R-ME) received a “lean R” grade. The rest of seats up for grabs strongly lead towards one party or the other.
