Democratic party\u2019s dilemma<\/a> in the second Trump era as they try to find a way back to power, and also their frustration as Republicans have pushed through legislation and nominations that they vehemently disagree with. Do they cooperate where they can, or do they fight everything, and shut down governance in the process? <\/p>\n\u201cA lot of us in this caucus want to f\u2014\u2014 fight,\u201d Booker said with an expletive as he left the Senate floor after the exchange. <\/p>\n
Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, one of the two Democrats on the floor who tried to pass the law enforcement bills that raised Booker\u2019s ire, said she had a different view. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe can do both,\u201d she said afterward. \u201cSupport our communities, keep them safe, and take on Donald Trump and his bad policies.\u201d <\/p>\n
Booker\u2019s tirade began Tuesday afternoon when Cortez Masto tried to pass seven bipartisan bills by unanimous consent. But Booker objected to five of the seven bills, which would have directed resources to law enforcement agencies, arguing that the Trump administration is \u201cweaponizing\u201d public safety grants by canceling them in many Democratic-leaning states like New Jersey. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would we do something today that\u2019s playing into the president\u2019s politics and is going to hurt the officers in states like mine?\u201d Booker asked. <\/p>\n
Things escalated from there, with Cortez Masto and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., saying that Booker should have objected when the bill was passed unanimously out of committee. \u201cThis is not the way to go about it,\u201d Cortez Masto said. <\/p>\n
Klobuchar said to Booker: \u201cYou can\u2019t just do one thing on Police Week and not show up and not object and let these bills go through and then say another a few weeks later on the floor.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI like to show up at the markups and I like to make my case,\u201d Klobuchar said. <\/p>\n
Booker responded with a booming tirade. \u201cThe Democratic party needs a wake up call!\u201d he yelled, walking away from his desk and out into the aisle. \u201cI see law firms bending the knee to this president, not caring about the larger principles,\u201d he said, along with \u201cuniversities that should be bastions of free speech.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added: \u201cYou want to come at me that way, you will have to take it on with me because there\u2019s too much on the line.\u201d <\/p>\n
The arguments points to the tensions below the surface of the Democratic caucus as they head into important moments \u2014 both this week, as Republicans push to quickly confirm dozens of Trump administration nominees before the August recess, and this fall when Congress will have to pass bipartisan spending bills to avoid a government shutdown. <\/p>\n
Democrats suffered a swift backlash from their base in the spring when Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., helped advance a Republican spending bill that kept the government open instead of forcing a shutdown. Schumer argued that shutting the government down would have been worse, and that they were both \u201cterrible\u201d options. It is unclear whether Schumer and Democrats will want to force a shutdown in the fall if Republicans don\u2019t include some of their priorities in spending legislation. <\/p>\n
Booker did not have specific advice for his colleagues beyond the need to fight harder. But other senators say they will have to find a balance. <\/p>\n
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut says he hears both things at home \u2014 \u201cwhy can\u2019t you all get along\u201d and \u201cthank you for fighting.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBoth are absolutely necessary at this moment in history,\u201d Blumenthal said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 In a rare public outburst on the Senate floor Tuesday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,8632,37002,37003,12,793,1997,3,111,8638,9293,3438,21,792,19,11162,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":["post-47104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-amy-klobuchar","tag-catherine-cortez-masto","tag-cory-booker","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-new-jersey","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-government-shutdown","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-united-states-senate","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}