Cory Booker

Mr. BOOKER

Mr. BOOKER. Before I yield to you, I just want you to know, I love you, my friend. Thanks for doing some good things recently, you and I, trying to solve some big problems. I appreciate that. I yield for a question while retaining the floor.

Mr. BOOKER. I am going to answer your question. I want to say thank you. There have been so many Congress people coming on to the floor from the House of Representatives. It reminds me of some other times when big things were happening and people would come to the floor. But this is a lot more, and I just want to express thank you for your kindness. I also called the chairwoman of the CBC last night, texted her, and the force of the CBC, which has been giving me spirit and strength for a long time, is really one of the best parts of my time here as a U.S. Senator. The fact they have come through constantly means a lot to me. I am grateful that my cousin Pam has been here the entire time--just like Chris Murphy--the entire time in the Gallery. I love her and I am grateful for her. She is sitting next to my brother. I am thankful for that. I want to answer your question. I get it all the time, and I am not sure how to answer it all the time. I read letters that got me emotional in the middle of the night where somebody would detail all their challenges. They would render personal information to me in letters about their struggles with healthcare, about their conditions, about their pain, about their hurt--just sending it out to their government official that they never probably met, hoping that they might just listen to you and be activated by your voice. Then many of them ended the letter with that question: I am here to help you in any way. It really moves me because I believe in the decency of our country. And so I just want to try to answer that question more with me trying to think creatively about more that I could do as a leader because, as I said before, I think we as Democratic leaders have to start thinking more creatively. Obviously, we don't control the Senate, we don't control the House; but we have positions that were given to us in trust by the people we represent. In moments like this, they require us to be more creative or more imaginable or more persistent and dogged and determined. I say that in front of some of my colleagues on the floor I know personally, like you, and some of my CBC colleagues sitting over here to my right who have been my rock for almost 13 years. I just know, before I turn to my left to the woman who represents the most important person in my 55 years, my mom--I just want to say that the answer to that question has to be something that I will do, something more than I am doing now because the cause is so great, the challenges are so real. I will do something that I have not done before to try to help my neighbor at a time of moral crisis in our country, and that I may be afraid, my voice may shake, but I am going to speak up more. I may be demoralized by what is happening, but I am going to find a way to get out of bed and breathe and know that I can make myself feel a little bit better by helping another person. I don't know what it is, but we have to help each other now through this and know--I am a person of faith, and it was said to me by a colleague that though we would be willing to work through the night, but joy will come. I am going to turn to my left because I always say that she is a Senator, but she has had one of the hardest jobs in all of America, which is to be the President of a shule. I met her and I realized she could probably do anything.

Mr. BOOKER. Yes, I am not Jewish, but my name is Booker, so I always say I am meshuga Booker. There is a formal way I have to do this. I see you, I love you, and I am wondering if you have something to ask me.

Mr. BOOKER. I yield for a question while retaining the floor.

Mr. BOOKER. That is powerful.

Mr. BOOKER. You and I.

Mr. BOOKER. Yes.

Mr. BOOKER. Whom I suspect, like my cousin and my brother in the Galleries, that my mom is watching--

Mr. BOOKER.--from Las Vegas.

Mr. BOOKER. I want to answer your question, but first I want to just say what you already know. You represent my mom. You represent one of her best friends, Lou. You represent my Aunt Shirley. You represent my Uncle Butch. You represent my Aunt Marilyn. You represent so much of my family. This is the place where my father died, and when Harry Reid came to his bedside when he was sick and I was still running for this office and he showed me the extraordinary kindness of Senators from Nevada-- that tradition has continued. I am so grateful for you. My family is grateful for you. I am grateful that we were founders of the Black Jewish Caucus, and, in fact, I am going to--

Mr. BOOKER. Our Juneteenth seder is coming up. I am going to put this on as you have it on. I think about Edan Alexander and all those who are suffering. I am just so grateful for our friendship and what we have done against anti- Semitism, about what we have done for the Abraham Accords. You and I are those who find a lot of ways to work with people. The best thing I saw in you was on January 6. Sitting in this row were me, you, and Mark Kelly, and I always say that often in the most difficult of circumstances, you see the best of people. I don't know if you remember this, but staffers started coming in. They rushed in. Usually, you have to have special identification. Then some of them stood behind us. They were crying, they were upset, and they were frightened. I just watched you go from Senator to mother, and I watched you comforting people in their times of fear--when they thought they were going to be killed, literally--and you were this voice of comfort, this voice of calm. I saw you in one of our country's worst crises. I saw your light. I saw your love. I saw the Jewish mom, and I benefited from that. I just feel that Trump mocks us. What does his liberation day mean to the people who are shackled to debt? They are shackled with medical debt and they are shackled with student debt so that they can't afford the rising costs of groceries. What does his liberation mean to people who are chained by fear, who are right now waiting with bated breath to see if the Medicaid Programs they rely on are going to be cut? What does his liberation mean to people who are literally in jails right now because they were disappeared from our streets? What does his liberation mean to people who can't afford homes because of his tariffs or to people who dreamed of a new car but that is going to go up as well? I don't know what he means by ``liberation.'' I honestly don't. I wish he could explain it to the American people. Who is liberated? In these financial times, who is liberated? I don't think the law firms feel liberated. They are so threatened by you that they felt the only way they could get out from under the threat of you is to come to you and beg and offer and say ``We will do this'' and say ``We will give you millions of dollars of pro bono work.'' I don't think they feel liberated. What about the people who are banned from the press corps because they won't call it the Gulf of America? The idea of the freedom of the press--do they feel his liberty? What does his liberty mean? What does Donald Trump's liberty day tomorrow mean in a nation where I read in letter after letter of people who feel like their liberty is gone, that they are losing sleep at night, worried about Social Security? What does liberty mean to the veteran who was laid off who fought for my liberty? What does Donald Trump's liberty mean? What is he talking about? What does his liberty mean to Canada, who fought next to us, who died next to Americans who were fighting for our own causes? What does his liberty mean to them? I don't understand Donald Trump. I really don't. There are going to be Ph.D. students writing about him for generations. He will love that in Heaven. He will look down and say: I am so happy that people are talking about me. But I will tell you this: I love great Presidents. I love that Lincoln said: With malice toward none, with charity [toward] all. But I hear Donald Trump say with malice toward everybody who does not tell him how great he is, and charity--I don't know if he understands that, what it means to have sympathy and compassion and empathy and to help people whether they like you or not. I love great Presidents. I love FDR: ``You have nothing to fear but fear itself.'' But in letter after letter after letter was the word ``fear'' and the word ``terror.'' I was reading from voices from my State and across the country. It says: If Donald Trump is saying be afraid, be afraid of me, the big man with the power. Be afraid. Be afraid. Be afraid. There was another President who said, ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'' Yet Ukrainian-Americans are watching their President go not ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall''; they are saying ``Hey, Mr. Putin, come in and take the Donbas. I am going to start the negotiations--not with Zelenskyy at the table. I am going to call him a dictator. I am going to start the negotiations from a position of giving Putin what he wants--Ukrainian sovereign land--and that is where we will start the negotiation.'' I love John F. Kennedy. Quoting a poet: ``Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.'' With Donald Trump, it is not ``Ask not what your country can do for you''; it is ``Ask what can you do for Donald Trump because I will threaten you until you kowtow. I will threaten to run primaries against you if you don't fall in line and vote for things you know are wrong. I will terrorize your law firm unless you come to me and kiss my ring. I will make political your applications for your merger. I will drop cases against you. I will pardon you if,'' as he said in a recent pardon--he was a pro-Trump guy. I don't understand this. I really don't. I don't understand why he tries to divide Americans. I got on a plane once. I am on a plane, and I am juggling to put my carryon up. I get lots of reactions in airports, I have to say on the whole part, good, but occasionally--I think my colleagues next month, next May, should send me a Mother's Day card because occasionally I get called ``you mother'' with something following it. So here I am putting up my overhead baggage, and I sit down next to two people--the Presiding Officer before this, my friend from Alabama-- two Alabamians, one 80 years old and one 60 years old, mother and a daughter. They saw people paying attention to me, and they said: Who are you? Are you a professional athlete? As a middle-age, overweight, Black guy, my ego wasn't insulted. I wanted to say: Well, I could be, but I chose to serve the people. But no. I go: No, ma'am, I am not. Well, who are you then? Well, I am a Senator. And we are so conditioned in America. If we meet a Congress person out and about, the first thing we want to know is, whose team are you on--my team or their team? It is us versus them. We have a horrible dynamic of tribalism in our country. I took a deep breath, and I looked at these two great American women and said: Ma'am, I am a Democrat. The woman next to me looks at me, suddenly sour, and she said: I should have brought my Trump hat. And she wheeled away from me. Immediately, I said: Do you know what, I am not going to dance to this tune. I am going to scratch this record. I am going to scratch this record. I looked at her, and I go: Oh, my gosh. Donald Trump signed two of the biggest bills I wrote in Congress into law--the FIRST STEP Act, which we passed in this body with 87 votes. We would have gotten 88 if one of my dear friends and colleagues was not off trying to do whatever in the world and he wasn't here to vote on it. I talked about opportunity zones and working with Tim Scott to get billions of dollars invested into some of our country's poorest rural and urban areas. Now they were confused, but by the end of that flight, Donald Trump didn't divide us, though. By the end of that flight, I was talking to them like fellow Americans, and we found so many points of connection, so much common humanity, and so much common cause. These outrage machines--TV and these devices--I want to say to America that their financial interest is to keep your eyes on the screen as much as you possibly can. Do you know what sells? Division. Divide. Moral indignation. I will tell you this: I have this great friend who is part of the bald club--Van Jones. He told me this story that he was on ``Crossfire'' on CNN. Van Jones got on with Newt Gingrich. Van Jones--the green activist guy I met in law school--is an extraordinary man. He speaks like a poet to me. He worked in the Obama White House. Then Newt Gingrich is a very known Republican. The two of them sit down. But Brene Brown writes something extraordinary. She writes: It is hard to hate up close, so pull people in. So they get on this show called ``Crossfire,'' and they found out that with all the differences they have, they also have commonality, things they agree on, and they actually kind of like each other. So they go to the producers, and they say: Hey, could you let us do a final segment called ``Cease-Fire''? Can you let us do a final segment called ``Cease-Fire''? The producer said: Yes. Go ahead. Go ahead. So they do this last segment talking about the areas where they agreed, but the producer comes running in after a few segments, saying: Stop them. Can't do it. Why? Ratings are going down. There are a lot of legitimate differences in places where I am going to stand my ground and fight for people's healthcare, for people's Social Security. I am going to fight. But I am never going to get in a position where anybody in this country can make me hate another American because this is the age where we have to figure out how to live up to those words up there, ``e pluribus unum.'' That is the call of our ancestors, to put more ``indivisible'' into this ``one nation under God.'' That is the challenge. There are enough things that we agree on in America, especially when we stop and talk about things--like the child tax credit. Most Americans are for that.

Mr. BOOKER. Oh, gosh, I have been waiting for you. For crying out loud, why didn't you stop me earlier?

Mr. BOOKER. Oh, come on. Come on, Senator.

Mr. BOOKER. I yield for a question while retaining the floor.

Mr. BOOKER. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is my veterans book. This is what I was reading from earlier. And everything you are saying is right, and it is such an insult. I read stories from our veterans. It is such an insult to the highest calling of our country, to stand and serve, as you did--as you did-- injured veterans, disabled veterans. I read an article about thousands of disabled veterans who want to serve their country, love this Nation so much that they want to serve in humble jobs doing noble things. And how do we treat them? I will say 83,000 people being laid off. A quarter of them are our veterans from the VA itself, including veterans who do things for the Park Service in our national parks, veterans who do things for us in the Defense Department, veterans who do things for us across this country. I find in my State that some of the greatest leaders I have met in my State are veterans who are still serving veterans. And then veteran entrepreneurs--you know the data--they are incredibly successful. They add to our economy. The government is cutting not just veteran jobs; they are cutting contracts with veteran-owned businesses. I don't understand how you can say out of one side of your mouth that you honor and respect our veterans, which is not what our President has always said--dear God, what he said about John McCain. I still remember John McCain was in a townhall with Barack Obama, fighting fiercely to be the President of the United States, and somebody gets up and says that Barack Obama--as if it is an insult; it is not--is a Muslim or something, and he grabs the mike back and corrects her. One of his voters--he corrects her on national TV: This is wrong. He is a guy who loves his wife, a Christian, loves his family. I mean, that is character and honor. Can you ever see that from our President now? And this is how wrong I was. I want to admit I have made mistakes. I have been wrong. I remember where I was when he said in his campaign that he is no hero, that people who are captured are not heroes. I said to the people who were with me: There goes his 15 minutes of fame. I thought that was the end of Trump. But somehow you can become President of the United States when you insult the veterans who serve. I know you have another question, but can I read you--John Lewis and John McCain--the two Johns--are coming up a lot so far in my 20 hours. But I want to read you this. I want to read this when you are here. This is John McCain writing: Let me [all] tell you what I think about our Pledge of Allegiance, our flag, and our country. I want to tell you a story about when I was a prisoner of war. I spent 5 . . . years at the Hanoi Hilton. In the early years of our imprisonment, the North Vietnamese kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell. In 1971 the [North Vietnamese] moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 or 40 men to a room. This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans [led by people like Nancy and Ronald Reagan] on behalf of a few hundred POWs, 10,000 miles from home. One of the men who moved into my cell was Mike Christian. Mike came from a small town [near] Selma, Alabama. [He] didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission. . . . [H]e became a Naval Flight Officer, and was shot down and captured in 1967. Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country and our military provide for people who want to work and want to succeed. The uniforms we wore in prison consisted of a blue, short- sleeve shirt, trousers that looked like pajama trousers, and rubber sandals that were made out of automobile tires. I recommend them highly. My pair lasted my entire stay. As a part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home, and some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarfs, and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a piece of white cloth and a piece of red cloth and fashioned himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he sewed the American flag on the inside of his shirt. Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of our cell, and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know that saying the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important or meaningful part of our day now-- Our day in the Senate-- but I can assure you that for those men in that stark prison cell, it was indeed the most important and meaningful event of our day. One day, the Vietnamese searched our cell and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it. That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, called for Mike Christian to come out, closed the door of the cell, and for the benefit of all of us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours. Then they opened the door of the cell and threw him back inside. He was not in good shape. We tried to comfort and take care of him as well as we could. The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room. After things quieted down, I went to lie down to go to sleep. As I did, I happened to look in the corner of the room. Sitting there beneath that dim light bulb, with a piece of white cloth, a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend Mike Christian, sitting there, with his eyes almost shut from his beating, making another American flag. He was not making that flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was for us to be able to pledge our allegiance to our flag and our country. Duty, honor, country--we must never forget those thousands of Americans who, with their courage, with their sacrifice, with their lives, made those words alive for all of us. That is our veterans. That is you. That is you, my friend. And Trump is coming after them. DOGE is coming after them. They are firing them right now. And are we silent, America? Are we silent when the bravest amongst us, the most honorable amongst us, the most noble amongst us are losing their jobs? Did you speak up when they came for American veterans? When they fired them for no good reason, what did you do? What did you say? I say no.

Mr. BOOKER. I yield for a question while retaining the floor.

Mr. BOOKER. Oh, God, I am very moved by your comments. I want to say that, from David McCormick to Jack Reed, the Senate has a good number of people who served this Nation, who answered the call. They should all get our honor and respect. Senator Blumenthal served, and he has a son, a Navy SEAL. We should have a reverence for those people because a lot of them didn't make it back. A lot of people didn't make it back. And a lot of people who came home came home with horrible wounds, visible and invisible. We should all be ashamed of the veterans that are committing suicide. We should all be ashamed of veteran homelessness. We have the capacity--we are a great enough nation--to help them. But the ones that didn't come back, they watch over us. They look down upon this Nation. I want to read you one more thing because I have--I was raised by parents who could not--they seemed really worried, raising me in an affluent town in a beautiful home, that I would not recognize how extraordinarily privileged I was. My dad used to say to me: Boy, don't walk around this house like you hit a triple. You were born on third base. My dad used to say things to me like: Boy, don't sit at this table and not realize that you drink deeply from wells of freedom and liberty that you did not dig. You eat from banquet tables of blessings prepared for you by your ancestors. You must metabolize those blessings, not so that you can pay your ancestors back but so you can pay it forward. My dad, when I got degrees from Stanford, Oxford, and Yale, said: Boy, you got more degrees than the month of July, but you ain't hot. Life ain't about the degrees you get; it is about the service you give. So McCormick and Reed and Tammy--I am here because of people that died for this country, that stormed beaches in Normandy for this country, they were at Iwo Jima for this country, they liberated Nazi concentration camps for this country. They are buried--I have seen their burials in Thailand, in fields full of American soldiers who never made it home. And every time I see one of those, I get overcome with emotion. I can't think about--when I look at their ages: 18, 19, 20, 21. So let me read this. And I am going to compose myself because you got me all emotional, Tammy. I thought you were my friend. This is a poem written by Billy Rose. You know it, probably. It is called ``The Unknown Soldier.'' And just listen to the words, and let them echo and see if we are living up to them, if our President lives up to them. The most powerful person in the world or the richest man in the world, are they respecting? There's a graveyard near the White House Where the Unknown Soldier lies, And the flowers there are sprinkled With the tears from mother's eyes. I stood there not so long ago With roses for the brave, And suddenly I heard a voice Speak from out the grave: ``I am the Unknown Soldier, The spirit voice began ``And I think I have the right To ask some questions man to man. ``Are my buddies taken care of? Was their victory so sweet? Is that big reward you offered Selling pencils on the street? ``Did they really win the freedom They battled to achieve? Do you still respect that Croix de Guerre Above that empty sleeve? ``Does a gold star in the window Now mean anything at all? I wonder how my old girl feels When she hears a bugle call. ``And that baby who sang `Hello, Central, give me no man's land' Can they replace her daddy With a military band? ``I wonder if the profiteers Have satisfied their greed? I wonder if a soldier's mother Ever is in need? ``I wonder if the kings, who planned it all Are really satisfied? They played their game of checkers And eleven million died. ``I am the Unknown Soldier And maybe I died in vain, But if I were alive and my country called, I'd do it all over again. Thank you, Senator. Every time I see you, I have such reverence and gratitude that I get to serve alongside of you. I didn't serve in the military alongside of you like those courageous soldiers, like those people who carried you, at risk to themselves, the people who saved your life, the people who helped you in rehab, the people that empowered you to get back on your feet and run for one of the highest offices in the land. And then you serve here with distinction because you don't forget who helped you get here.

Mr. BOOKER. Exactly. And my dad, who is in heaven with a lot of the other good folks from American history, I don't know what he would think of his son, but I know he would be proud of you. All right. Let's talk about the economy.

Mr. BOOKER. Oh, Christopher Coons.

Mr. BOOKER. I yield for a question while retaining the floor.

Mr. BOOKER. So every time you ask me the question, we have to go through the same thing. I am slightly familiar, yes, because you talked about it, but I would be really happy if you ask me another question and you filled in some gaps.

Mr. BOOKER. Then I yield for a question. If you want to ask me a question, I yield for a question while retaining the floor, with the recognition that I have to do it because I am standing between two Delawareans, and I am a little nervous. A New Jerseyan never wants to be between two Delawareans.

Mr. BOOKER. I thank you, Senator Coons, by your strength of voice, by your tone, by the colleague and citizen that you invoke. You are saying the answer with strength, my friend. How do we judge our Nation? What measure do we judge America? Is it by how tall our buildings are? Well, those are great marvels, but other countries have taller buildings. God, maybe Ezra Klein has got me so focused now on making our Nation do bold and build great things. But does the speed of our rails, as an Amtrak guy, speak to the greatness of our Nation? No. Other nations have faster rail. Does the wealth of our people--we have more billionaires than any other country--does that speak to the greatness of our Nation? No. I think the things that speak to the greatness of a nation is: How do we take care of each other? How do we take care of our elders who deserve our respect and our reverence and gratitude for building America, for sustaining America, for doing the hard jobs to raise families to set the next generation on their way. I think we should be judged by how we treat our children. They are the only true hope we have of seeing tomorrows that we will never live through. I think we should be judged by how we treat the sick. Whether it is people with the disease of alcoholism or mental health or crippling cancers or chronic diseases, what do we do? I think we should be judged by how we nurture our families. God, we put American families under crazy stress. Affordable childcare, paid family leave, other nations--our competitors--have these things. I think we should judge the greatness of our Nation by how we treat our veterans, these honorable men and women, some of them who gave their last measure--last measure of their devotion on fields across the world from Thailand to Gettysburg and gave their lives. Those who came home--those who came home, how they--the America they experienced will speak to the truth of who we are. So I am in this place like you are in this place. We have been friends for a long time. I am blaming you a little bit because you are one of those people I called and said: Hey, I am thinking about running for Governor. I am thinking about running for Senator. You told me to come here, man. I am joking. I love you for it. I am honored and blessed that New Jerseyans sent me here. I know that you and I are working to--and let's talk like we talk when we are not on the floor of the Senate. We both are deeply devoted Christians. You told me one of my favorite stories in the Senate, which I won't tell right now. I have been asking you to tell that story. I hope you will tell it, but it is just about your parents. James Baldwin said: Children are never good at listening to their elders, but they never fail to imitate them. You are a great reflection of the stories of your parents you told me, and you and I grapple with this faith of ours, which demands the most radical love--radical love. What does the Bible say about immigrants? I mean, come on. What does the Bible say about the poor? What does the Bible say about the hated, the prostitute, the leper, the people who are looked down upon? What is the story of the Prodigal Son? What does Matthew 25 say about how we should live? ``Even as the least of these you did unto me.'' How many times does the Bible mention poverty. How many?

Mr. BOOKER. I am abiding by it. I will not yield to you. But I knew you would know it. Two thousand times it mentions poverty. Does it say we should scorn the poor? Does it say we should ignore the poor? No. It calls us to love our neighbor. No exceptions to that.

Mr. BOOKER. Thank you, man. I have been waiting for that question. The prayers of the righteous and vails. You are a righteous man. I have a lot of work to do. I yield for a question, but I am retaining the floor. I tried to instigate you, Chris. I tried to throw out Jesus bait.