Cory Booker said Sunday that Donald Trump is ‘worse than a racist’ when condemning the comments he made against the group of four minority congresswomen last week.
‘The reality is, this is a guy who is worse than a racist,’ Booker told CNN Sunday morning. ‘He is actually using racist tropes and racial language for political gains, trying to use this as a weapon to divide our nation against itself.’
The president’s comments last weekend gained national backlash when he told Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley to ‘go back’ and fix the countries they came from.
Since then, the president has pushed back on claims the tweet was racist and even doubled down on the sentiments, saying that if people don’t like America they are free to leave.
Cory Booker, 2020 candidate and Democratic senator from New Jersey, said Sunday that President Donald Trump is ‘worse than a racist’
Booker is making reference to Trump’s recent tweets and comments attacking four minority congresswomen
Last Sunday Trump said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley should ‘go back’ to their countries of origin before trying to weigh in on American politics
Booker likened Trump’s comments to that of late Alabama Governor George Wallace, a know racist and white supremacist
Sunday morning, Trump tweeted against the quartet again, expressing he doesn’t feel the lawmakers representing U.S. states in Congress are capable of loving American.
‘I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country,’ Trump tweeted during the tail end of his visit to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey on Sunday.
‘They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said,’ he continued, adding they are taking the Democratic Party down and he doesn’t want the country to go with it. ‘They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!’
During his appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, Booker compared Trump to George Wallace the governor of Alabama at several different points between 1963 and 1987.
Wallace was a white supremacist and racist remembered for his opposition to segregation and support of Jim Crow policies during the Civil Rights movement. During his 1963 inaugural address he said he stood for ‘segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.’
Trump reinforced the sentiments throughout the week, telling people that if they don’t like America they can leave
‘You can leave!’ Trump said in another chain of tweets this week
‘The squad’ held a joint press conference Monday condemning Trump’s words and calling for his impeachment, using words like ‘racist’ and ‘white nationalist’ the describe the president
‘He is actually using racist tropes and racial language for political gains, trying to use this as a weapon to divide our nation against itself,’ Booker said of Trump
He unsuccessfully ran for president as an independent three times.
‘This is somebody who is very similar to George Wallace, to racists who use – he’s using the exact same language,’ Booker said. ‘As somebody texted me during his rallies, ‘I have seen this before in black and white. And now I’m seeing it again decades later, where I thought our country was beyond this. I’m seeing this in full color.”
During Trump’s Wednesday night rally in Greenville, North Carolina, the crowd began chanting, ‘Send her back!,’ in reference to Omar.
The chants broke out after Trump spent a few minutes bashing Omar and the other members of ‘the squad,’ and lasted for about 13 seconds before Trump jumped in to continue his remarks.
‘She looks down with contempt on hard-working Americans, saying that ‘ignorance is pervasive in many parts of this country,” Trump said at the rally just ahead of the chant.
During a Trump rally Wednesday night in Greenville, North Carolina, the crowd chanted, ‘Send her back!’ in reference to Omar after Trump spent several minutes bashing her and the other three minority members
Of the four, only Omar (second from left) was born in a country other than the U.S. She fled Somalia with her family when she was a young teenager and became a naturalized U.S. citizen when she was 17
The president sent mixed signals on how he felt about the chant, first condemning it and saying he didn’t initiate it, and later claiming those chanting are ‘patriots.’
Booker, a New Jersey senator running for president in 2020, said the upcoming presidential election is going to mark a new chapter in U.S. history.
‘We have a demagogue, fear-mongering person who’s using race to divide,’ Booker said. ‘And this is a referendum – not on him – it’s actually a referendum on the heart and soul of our country. Who are we going to be and who are we going to be to each other?’
There are 25 Democrats vying for the change to take on Trump in 2020. The second round of Democrat debates are taking place at the end of July in Detroit, Michigan.
Trump won Michigan in 2016 with 47.3 per cent of the vote.