Washington — Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey sparred with fellow Democrats on Tuesday over a bipartisan policing package, accusing them of being “complicit” in President Trump’s agenda in a rare moment of intraparty disagreement that played out on the Senate floor.
The heated exchange arose after Booker objected to a motion from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, to swiftly pass a package of bills related to law enforcement. Booker said he wanted to make a change to the bloc of measures to ensure resources are distributed equally among law enforcement agencies in response to the Justice Department’s changes to grant programs and cancellation of awards.
“We are standing at a moment where our president is eviscerating the Constitution of the United States of America, and we’re willing to go along with that today,” he said. “No, no. Not on my watch. I stand against this. It is a violation of our Constitution for the president of the United States to ignore the will of Congress and decide which states are eligible for grants and which are not.”
Booker accused Cortez Masto and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who backs the legislative package, of lecturing him.
“What I am tired of is when the president of the United States violates the Constitution, trashes our norms and traditions and what does the Democratic Party do? Comply? Allow him? Beg for scraps? No. I demand justice,” he said.
Booker said the Democratic Party “needs a wake-up call.”
“It’s time for Democrats to have a backbone. It’s time for us to fight. It’s time for us to draw lines,” he said, as his voice started rising. “Don’t question my integrity. Don’t question my motives.”
Booker said in his remarks from the Senate floor that the Justice Department has been weaponizing public safety grants to punish state and local jurisdictions that oppose Mr. Trump’s second-term agenda, and it is withholding funds from law enforcement agencies across the country when they were approved by Congress with bipartisan backing.
“It is disgraceful, it is unfair, it is unjust and it is dangerously reckless toward the officers whose well-being they are jeopardizing,” Booker said. “Federal funds should not be used for partisan political gains.”
The New Jersey Democrat lambasted his colleagues and accused them of effectively blessing Mr. Trump’s decision to rescind grant funds by approving the legislative package.
“For us as a body to move forward right now is being complicit in what Donald Trump is doing,” Booker said. “I say no. I say we stand. I say we fight. I say we reject this, and that in a bipartisan way, we demand an end to this kind of constitutionally unjust carving up of the resources we approve.”
Booker had put forward an amendment to the bloc of bills that he said would prevent politicization and ensure resources are spread evenly among law enforcement agencies, regardless of the state they are in.
“This to me is the problem with Democrats in America right now, is we’re willing to be complicit to Donald Trump, to let this pass through when we have all the leverage right now there is, to say, ‘if you’re as passionate about police as we are, then pass bills out of this body that will help the police officers in Washington, that will help the police officers in Illinois, that will help the police officers in New Jersey,’” he said. “Don’t be complicit to the president of the United States.”
In response, Cortez Masto said the measures had been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee with bipartisan support — including by Booker. She criticized him for not putting forth his proposed amendment when the bills were before the panel and said his suggested change doesn’t apply to her legislation.
“This is ridiculous,” she said, adding that Booker should have raised his concerns weeks ago. “Is this the right venue to fight for what he is seeking?”
Klobuchar, in her own remarks on the Senate floor, also defended the package and suggested Booker had missed the committee meeting when they were marked up. Booker is a member of the Judiciary Committee.
“I can’t help it if someone couldn’t change their schedule to be there,” she said.
Klobuchar said Booker has had issues with her policing bill that predate Mr. Trump’s return to the White House, adding, “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 on the floor.”
The tense back-and-forth came as Democrats have struggled to coalesce around a strategy for pushing back against Mr. Trump’s second-term agenda. Republicans control both the House and Senate, leaving Democrats with limited means to derail his legislative priorities if they disagree with them.
Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts.
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