On Tuesday, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was on the Senate Judiciary Committee hotseat over President Trump’s “sh*thole countries” remark heard ’round the world. While defending the “tough language,” she ridiculously tried to claim that she didn’t know that Norway was predominantly white. This, along with the rest of her testimony, must have riled up Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) so much that he completely unloaded in Nielson’s direction.
Booker spilled his fury for over eight minutes, and above, he emphasized how gutted he was when Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) confirmed the president’s incendiary comments about Haitians and people from African countries. After describing Trump’s language as “the most vile and vulgar,” Booker began yelling to let Nielson know exactly how he felt about her casual attitude:
“That language festers when ignorance and bigotry is aligned with power. It is a dangerous force in our country. Your silence and your amnesia is complicity.
I hurt. When Dick Durbin called me I had tears of rage when I heard about his experience in this meeting, and for you not to feel that hurt and that pain and to dismiss some of the questions of my colleagues … when tens of millions of Americas are hurting right now because of what they’re worried about what happened in the White House, that’s unacceptable to me!”
Booker’s lending a (shouty) voice for many, not only in his party but on the Republican side, about the “sh*thole” remark that will never be forgotten. And while this senatorial outburst will resonate, many have been wondering lately if the New Jersey senator is truly positioning himself for a 2020 run. Indeed, some speculate that Booker is the Democrat that Trump will fear most in a few years, and given the senator’s passionate DNC speech in 2016, he’s probably a much more realistic nominee than, say, Oprah.
Watch Booker’s entire (explosive) statement below, courtesy of C-SPAN.
(Via C-SPAN)