Emotions were high on the U.S. Senate floor on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as Democratic senators clashed in a war of words over a dispute while trying to pass proposals that would boost funding for police departments nationwide.
U.S. Cory Booker, D-N.J., objected to the bills containing federal police grants introduced by fellow Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of New Mexico, and Catherine Cortez Masto of New Mexico, arguing that the funding would not reach Democratic-controlled states like his in New Jersey, as a result of President Donald Trump‘s political vendetta.
“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 [Trump] likes,” said an impassioned Booker. He added, “That is complicity with an authoritarian leader who is trashing our Constitution.”
Booker got into a heated exchange with Klobuchar on the Senate floor following his objection to her and Cortez Masto’s bill package. Klobuchar criticized Booker for not raising his objections to the police funding during committee markups on the bills.
Booker explained that he had a scheduling conflict after a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was rescheduled. In response, Klobuchar said, “I can’t help it if someone couldn’t change their schedule to be there.” She added, “You can’t just pick out a few bills that came out of a committee and say, I’m going to stop those and then allow for other bills that fund other parts of your budget in your state.”
Clearly angered by Klobuchar, who called out Booker by name, the New Jersey senator took to the floor for a second time to explain that his objection is about a broader message for Democrats to stand up against what he described as a danger posed by Trump, who is using the bully pulpit of the presidency to unjustly bend the federal government, universities, law firms and corporations to his will.
“The Democratic Party needs a wake-up call. I see law firms bending a knee to this president, not caring about the larger principles and those free speech rights that you can take on any client…I see universities that should be bastions of free speech bending at the knee to this president,” said Booker.
Referring to CBS’s recent cancellation of “The Late Night with Stephen Colbert,” the senator continued, “I see businesses taking late night talk show hosts off the air because they dare to insult a president.”
He added, “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 rejected Klobuchar’s suggestion that he was not committed to securing needed public safety funding for his state.
“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…That’s why I’m a co-sponsor of some of the bills in this package,” the senator explained. “But what I am tired of is when the president of the United States of America violates the Constitution.”
“Don’t question my integrity. Don’t question my motives,” Booker asserted. “I’m standing for Jersey. I am standing for my police officers. I’m standing for the Constitution.”
