New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has been condemned online after he was the only Democrat to vote to confirm Ivanka Trump’s father-in-law for the role of U.S. ambassador to France.
The Senate voted to confirm New Jersey-born Charles Kushner, the father of Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner, to the top diplomatic role on Monday, despite the Republican previously pleading guilty to multiple felony tax offenses.
Kushner was confirmed in a 51-45 vote largely along party lines, with Booker being the sole Democrat joining the GOP. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, one of Donald Trump’s most prominent Republican critics, voted against confirming Kushner.
Booker, who has been touted as a potential 2028 presidential candidate following his mammoth 25-hour speech criticizing Trump, has come under fire for siding with Republicans to confirm a man the president pardoned for crimes including tax evasion and lying to the Federal Election Commission.
“Cory Booker losing his newfound Resist Lib credentials by being the only Democrat in the Senate to vote to advance the nomination of convicted felon Charles Kushner (yes that Kushner) to become Ambassador to France is very funny to me,” Adam Carlson, a former Democratic pollster, wrote on X. “Jersey gonna Jersey I guess.”
Conor Rogers, who worked on former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign, wrote: “Imagine doing a 24 hour filibuster to ‘Save Democracy’ and then being the only Democrat voting for the financial criminal Kushner [because] he raised you a bunch of cash. Booker is such a fraud. He’s even worse than the openly corrupt because he pretends to be some kind of better angel.”
Campaign finance expert Rob Pyers added that Booker is “probably not getting quite the same ActBlue fundraising bonanza for this vote as he did for his 24hr+ speech on why it was essential to resist Donald Trump.”
Cory Booker probably not getting quite the same ActBlue fundraising bonanza for this vote as he did for his 24hr+ speech on why it was essential to resist Donald Trump. https://t.co/mhRO8hCciu
— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) May 20, 2025
Booker did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Booker and Charles Kushner have a relationship dating back years, as noted by the New Jersey Globe. Kushner help fund Booker’s unsuccessful run for mayor of Newark in 2002, with Booker writing a letter of support for Kushner in 2004 amid his legal troubles.
Kushner also thanked Booker for his “special and close friendship” during his testimony at his confirmation hearing, reported ABC News.
In 2005, Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to 16 counts of tax fraud, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who prosecuted Kushner as U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, described the case in 2019 as one of the most “loathsome, disgusting crimes” he had ever worked on.
Kushner was among a slew of individuals Trump pardoned in Dec. 2020 during the final weeks of his first term, alongside longtime ally Roger Stone and former 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort.
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