By TEMPLE LI
While many Democrats have resorted to histrionics during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings over the past three days, none other have been as dramatic and comical as Sen. Cory Booker (D – New Jersey). His and others’ antics are blatant attempts to draw attention to themselves in preparation for upcoming elections, or as auditions to be the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.
In obvious pandering to his base, Booker questioned Kavanaugh on his views on race relations, racial profiling, and voter identification laws, trying any way he could to portray Kavanaugh as racist. Booker attempted to accuse Kavanaugh of supporting racial profiling by citing emails that Kavanaugh had written in 2001 and 2002 on the subject of racial profiling following the 9/11 terror attacks. Kavanaugh did not have a copy of the emails, as they had been marked “committee confidential.” Sen. Mike Lee (R – Utah) objected, saying that it was unfair to “cross-examine” Kavanaugh on a document to which he did not have access.
Booker began his grandstanding by saying that the documents should not be confidential because they were not a matter of national security and that he was going to release them, even though doing so would violate Senate committee rules. Sen. John Cornyn (R – Texas) called out Booker’s antics for what they were with the statement, “Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate or of confidentiality of the documents that we are privy to…”
But Booker, perhaps in attempt to be Nike’s next spokesman for standing for something and losing everything, bloviated, “I come from a long line of Americans that understand what kind of civil disobedience is and I understand the consequences. So I am right now before your process is finished, I am going to release the e-mail about racial profiling and I understand that that — the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate.”
He went on to say, “This is about the closest I’ll ever have to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.” And some of his colleagues, including Sen. Dick Durbin (D – Illinois) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D – Minnesota), voiced their support, apparently ready to line up behind Spartacus. Booker repeated several times that he was “knowingly violating the rules,” to which Sen. Chuck Grassley (R – Iowa) asked, “Can I ask you how long you’re going to say the same thing three or four times?”
Booker, apparently reveling in his impending self-sacrifice, replied, “I’m saying I’m knowingly violating the rules,” Booker replied. “Senator Cornyn has called me out for it.”
And Grassley, who also was wise to Booker’s campaign grandstanding retorted, ““How many times are you going to tell us that?”
Booker, in fact, did tweet out the emails, but as it turned out, the documents had already been cleared for releasing. Apparently, Booker even knew the documents could be released at the time; thus, the theatrics were for nothing.
Nothing related to Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, anyway. If Booker was hoping to create a glorious video clip to use in his 2020 presidential campaign, he’s certainly given his opponents fodder for their campaigns to show how disingenuous and self-serving he really is.
Temple Li is the news editor for Empire State News, where she frequently authors her own editorials (just because she feels like it). She graduated at the top of her class at a mediocre college, infuriating her professors with her conservative wit and sultry charm. Empire State News allows Ms. Li to make a living, and to have a platform to tell people what she thinks. What could be better than that?
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