Seth Meyers welcomed Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) onto Late Night Monday night, and after talking a bit about what it was like to transition from mayor of Newark to the Senate, the topic of conversation turned to Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), who has made recent headlines for his remarks about President Trump. When asked whether he was shocked to hear the retiring senator’s remarks, or if he was expressing sentiments from both sides of the aisle, Booker replied, “First of all, this isn’t new, this is one of the worst kept secrets in Washington, that Republicans and Democrats are very worried about the person that’s sitting in the White House.”
He continued, “I voted against most of Donald Trump’s appointees … Jeff Sessions, Pruitt, DeVos … these are people who had me really concerned, but you got a guy like General Mattis, and the conversations surrounding that were, let’s make sure we put the secretary of defense, somebody we can all rely on to try to be a wall between Donald Trump and disaster.”
When Meyers asked if that was maybe an unfair thing to ask of a secretary of defense, who has a difficult enough job as it is without having to essentially babysit the president, Booker admitted that he was very concerned right now. “Not only have we had our secretary of state, who should be the leader of diplomacy, but you have an administration who has been savagely cutting diplomacy, even just funding the kind of things that help keep regions stable,” he said. “Donald Trump’s willingness to speak in a manner about nuclear war … that is, to me, terrifying, frankly, about the consequences of someone who decides to conduct foreign policy that way.”
Booker went on to say that he’s been grateful for Senator Corker’s leadership and his effort to keep working together in a nonpartisan way, to push back against the White House. You have to wonder what it will take before more senators and congressmen to step forward and do the same.