Democrats spar on Senate floor: Booker goes up against Cortez Masto, Klobuchar over police bills
"It's time for us to have a backbone," a heated Sen. Cory Booker said.
A rare public display of Democrat-on-Democrat Senate infighting took place on the chamber floor Tuesday afternoon, with a heated Sen. Cory Booker laying into Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Amy Klobuchar as he shared his objection to a package of bipartisan bills meant to support law enforcement and their families.
During a back-and-forth that lasted almost an hour, an animated Booker called his colleagues "complicit" in President Donald Trump's agenda by passing the police-related legislation at a time when he said the White House is politicizing funding. He said the Department of Justice is currently withholding money from law enforcement agencies across the country, including his state of New Jersey.
"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 a line. And when it comes to the safety of my state being denied these grants, that's why I'm standing here,” Booker shouted on the floor.
Booker’s arguments quickly became a direct criticism of the current state of the Democratic Party as it tries to navigate Trump’s second term.
“This is a call, folks. Democratic Party needs a wake-up call,” Booker said. “This, to me, is the problem with Democrats in America right now ... We're willing to be complicit, to Donald Trump, to let this pass through when we have all the leverage,” he added.
Cortez Masto, of Nevada, and Klobuchar, of Minnesota, shot back at Booker’s accusations by insinuating that he was making his position known in public on the floor, despite the fact that they said he didn’t show up for Judiciary Committee markups on the bills and that he also voted to pass the bills out of committee.
“These bills passed unanimously out of the Judiciary Committee weeks ago. And my colleague from New Jersey -- have respect for him -- he's on the committee, he voted to pass these bills. He had an opportunity at that time to present this amendment, this is the first time we're ever hearing about it,” Cortez Masto said.
“This is ridiculous. This is an attempt to kill all of these bills. I don't know why. I don't know why, because, at the end of the day, all of these bills are about bipartisan support,” she added.
Klobuchar expressed a similar sentiment.
“One of the things I don't understand here, is that we have committees for a reason and we have hearings for a reason, and you can't 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 in a big speech on the floor," she said.
Booker had tried to add an amendment to the package which would “provide resources to law enforcement agencies with this important provision that safeguards these grants from politicization.”
Cortez Masto called it a “poison pill.”
“I agree -- President Trump's impoundment of funding, it is a serious concern. But tacking on a poison pill language to these bills won't guarantee any additional funding makes it to New Jersey, Nevada or any other state. Instead, what it will do … it will keep critical bills from passing in the first place,” Cortez Masto said.
Booker shot back, “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 at me that way, you're going to have to take it up with me!”
Eventually, the Senate did pass, by unanimous consent, the two bills that were part of the package. One, introduced by Cortez Masto and Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, ensures that the surviving families of retired officers who are killed as a result of prior service remain eligible for benefits. The other requires the DOJ to develop and publish standards for quality trauma kits.
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