Cory Booker
Appearances
Apple News Today
What new election results tell us about how attitudes are shifting
The threats to American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more. We all must do more against them.
Apple News Today
Markets plummet, a House revolt, and other big Washington news
He would not normalize a moment like this. He would not just go along with business as usual. He wouldn't know how to solve it. But there's one thing that he would do that I hope we all can do that I think I did a little bit of tonight. He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation.
Morning Wire
Wisconsin’s Judicial Election Decided & HHS Layoffs Begin | 4.2.25
Yes, I'm a Democrat and I admit that our health care system needs so much help and so much reform. One out of every three of our tax dollars is being spent on health care. That's ridiculous. And what are we getting from it? A society that's getting more and more sick.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-01-2025 6PM EDT
How can the central precept of our country, founded on principles that are reflected in the good book... How could we say that we should cut health care from the sick and the needy to give bigger tax cuts to Elon Musk?
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-27-2025 3PM EDT
That bill, we believe, presents one of the greatest moral threats to our country and
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-27-2025 3PM EDT
Listen to this podcast sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR News Now Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.
Pivot
Liberation Day, Elon Exit Rumors, and Guest Co-Host Jon Lovett
I talked to a lot of people. I copied some of the things we did for 15 hours. So I fasted for days into it. I stopped drinking water a long time ago. I think that had good and bad benefits. I definitely started cramping up from lack of water. So if some of you really drink nothing, at the end I was just trying to do something to stop my muscles from cramping.
Pivot
Liberation Day, Elon Exit Rumors, and Guest Co-Host Jon Lovett
So there's just a lot of tactics I was using to try to make sure that I could stand for that long.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
862. Andy & DJ CTI: Sen. Cory Booker’s Marathon “filibuster”, Trump Tells Inner Circle That Musk Will Soon & Judge Dismisses Eric Adams Case
Outro Music
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
862. Andy & DJ CTI: Sen. Cory Booker’s Marathon “filibuster”, Trump Tells Inner Circle That Musk Will Soon & Judge Dismisses Eric Adams Case
Now my jewelry box froze. Fuck a bowl, fuck a stole. Counted millions in a cold. Bad bitch, booty swole. Got her on bankroll. Can't fold, that's a no. Headshot, case closed.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
862. Andy & DJ CTI: Sen. Cory Booker’s Marathon “filibuster”, Trump Tells Inner Circle That Musk Will Soon & Judge Dismisses Eric Adams Case
It's getting good trouble. My friend, Madam President. I yield the floor.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2171 - Who Shot JFK?
to call to the conscience of this nation to say, I will not stand for another American to lose their healthcare for a billionaire. I will not stand for another veteran who's dedicated to stopping the suicide of other veterans to lose their job. I won't stand for the air quality in my community to be worse because they're letting polluters pollute more.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2171 - Who Shot JFK?
I won't stand for the collective assaults on the constitution by a man who even the highest judge in our land A Republican appointed judge said, stop threatening and bullying other branches of government. When is it going to be enough? My voice is inadequate. My efforts today are inadequate to stop what they're trying to do. But we, the people, are powerful. We are strong. We have changed history.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2171 - Who Shot JFK?
We have bent the arc of the moral universe. And now is that moral moment again. It's the moral moment again. God bless America, we need you now. God bless America. If you love her, if you love your neighbor, if you love this country, show your love. Stop them from doing what they're trying to doing for almost 20 hours. We have laid out what they're trying to do 20 hours.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2171 - Who Shot JFK?
I wanna stand more and I will, but I'm begging people, don't let this be another normal day in America.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2133 - Democrats Plan Trump IMPEACHMENT?!
We are going to fight this legally in every way we can. Woo! We will fight their violation of civil service laws. We will fight their violation of civil rights laws. We will fight their violations of separation of powers. We will fight their violations of our Constitution of the United States of America.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1012: Sam Stein: Elon Is Toxic
This is an American moral moment. This is the question of where do we stand for healthcare? Where do we stand for social security? Where do we stand for VA benefits? Where do we stand for our American neighbor when the call and commandment of every faith in our land is to love your neighbor? What is the quality of our love, America? Now is the time. to get angry but let that anger fuel you.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1012: Sam Stein: Elon Is Toxic
Now is your time to get scared for what's happening to your neighbors and let that fear bring about your courage. Now is your time to stare at despair and say you will not have the last word because I'm gonna stand up and at least I can give one person hope in this country. Can I give one person hope in this country? And so what do I want from my fellow Americans? Do better than me.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1012: Sam Stein: Elon Is Toxic
We are flawed and failed people. I see people showing up at our town halls yelling at us, Democrat and Republican, do more. How are you letting this happen? Well, I hate to tell you we're doing all that I can think of. This is why I'm standing here to try to give voice to those people. But what is more needed from now is less people sitting on the sidelines.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1012: Sam Stein: Elon Is Toxic
I ask you, are you better off than you were 72 days ago economically? I ask that question. Ask it to your friends. Are they better off economically? Well, I don't see how they could be, because prices are up, stock market's down, the risk of recession is climbing, consumer confidence is in the gutter. 401K plans are losing value.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1012: Sam Stein: Elon Is Toxic
Are you better off than you were 72 days ago under this president's leadership on the verge of his so-called liberation day that's going to drive prices up even more?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I think this president has betrayed American traditions, American allies, and frankly, the incredible people of Ukraine. His leadership over the last hundred days has almost been like an invitation to the Russians to continue what has been roundly condemned by the international community. as an unjustified war of aggression.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I listen to your guys' podcasts. I think that you all do a really good job. And I'm sorry, you're not asking me for this. I know my cultural traditions. Black radio here in Washington, D.C. This is where my parents came from, both from HBCUs to Chocolate City is what it used to be called before. So gentrified.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And it was so much injustice going on here, but blacks and whites, how my dad got his job being the first black salesman hired by IBM and then crushed it for the company. That's how I got to New Jersey is he was promoted because he was the top 5% of global salesmen.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
My dad got that job because of activists in the black community, the white community put pressure, talk about DEI hires, put pressure on them. on companies to like higher qualified blacks who then help that company further advance.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
But I say this to tell you that people like you who were willing to entertain, inform, engage, they became the most valuable voices during some of the most tumultuous times. My dad told me about the urban upheaval here when King was killed and the agony people felt and how much they held on to voices like yours. And I'll remind you, it wasn't just to curse the darkness.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
It was also people who understood who have roles like yours that are not in the left-right polls of our country, but provide voices of strength. Part of it was about how much they lit fires of hope. And I think that that's the moment that we're a little bit missing, and especially the Democratic Party, I think, is missing right now. And I just take you to a moment. My mom volunteered.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
She used to work for the D.C. public schools before she herself took a job with IBM as one of their first black women in the position she took. But she worked for the D.C. public schools, had the summer off.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
So she worked to organize, help organize the March on Washington, manned a booth on the mall, helping people who needed housing if they couldn't get transportation back to where they drove in from, bused in from.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And she told me that the remarkable thing about that day for her, besides the fact that most people forget that it was about, there were more pillars that day about economic justice than about racial justice. But what she said was remarkable that day is that when Martin Luther King had his moment, he did not unfurl a list of grievances against the demagogues of the day.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
He didn't talk about George Wallace and his darkness. He didn't talk about You know, Bull Connor, he took this moment where children were dying in church bombings, where people were getting beaten on their marches and on their freedom rides with billy clubs.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
We know Bloody Sunday, the rhetoric of those days speaks to the horrors that blacks were experiencing and many whites who were sitting in solidarity with them, like Goodman, Cheney and Schwerner, black, white, Christian and Jewish who died together in Mississippi. Amidst all of that, King stands up and does not simply speak to the darkness.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
He ignites a vision of America that was so compelling and inspired the moral imagination, not just of Democrats of the day, but of all Americans. This is one of those moments. And I'll tell you, Shiva is the god of destruction, but in the Hindu faith is revered because you cannot have rebirth and renewal without the god of destruction and
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And King, in that moral moment, didn't say America is lost, called America to find its way back to its North Star. And so I think that that's the other half of this moment, was we have to check Donald Trump everywhere. We have to amass the urgency amongst more good people who are doing not enough, including myself.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And that allowances and coddling of Putin has endangered democracies across the world and endangered the world order. And the way he's conducting it in this most recent peace proposal he has, the treatment of Zelensky and the demeaning and degrading way he discussed, talks about him as the dictator and coddles Putin, all of this is so offensive to
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
It is about the fight, but it's also about in this moment more than any other moment, We need to start talking about who America is and will be on the other side of this darkness. What's compelling us? Because too many people have given up on the idea of America. Too many people don't believe in the promise of America. We do not feel the kind of common calling and common cause.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And I think this is the very time that we need to also be talking to that as well.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Yeah. And again, okay, now what? Like, I'm not going to disagree. Yeah, now what?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
But now what? Like, okay, you've described the what is, and now what? And I will tell you the now what is... How have people changed in the past?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
How did we win the vote in 2017 when tens of millions of Americans were about to lose health care, when we were about to go back to a nation where if you had a preexisting condition, you couldn't get insured, and being a woman was considered a preexisting condition? How did we fight that?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Describing who they are is, in a sense, implicating us because you are not defined by what happens to you or who other people are. You decide how you how you choose to act. And the way we won in 2017 was people realizing they couldn't just condemn the Republicans who weren't working. They needed to stand up and do something to persuade them. Give them pathways to redemption.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And I loved those days. Maybe I love them now in retrospect because we won. But I was overwhelmed by the American people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Yeah, but how do we get those votes? And I would love to tell you right now that it was my eloquence and persuasive power that I marched into John McCain's office, slammed the door behind me, got up to him with all of my former 6'3", solid 260 pound muscle and got in John McCain's face and intimidated him.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I'd love to tell you some glorious story about how I persuaded John McCain, but it was not me. It wasn't one of the Democrats in the Senate that persuaded John McCain. You know who persuaded John McCain? It was thousands of people from his state coming here and telling their stories.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
not just to Democrats, but to the traditions of the Republican Party going back to the strong stands that Ronald Reagan took against the then Soviet Union.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
It was little lobbyists, these children with disabilities, beautiful children rolling up in their wheelchairs with such moral clarity and telling him what would happen if he dared to take away their health care. It was the power of the people overcoming the people in power. And so we are in that moment. And as King said, what we will have to repent for, especially if we lose this fight coming up,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
in this work period where they're going to try to tear away $880 billion from Medicaid. What we will have to repent for, as King said in his time, is not the vitriolic words and violent actions of the bad people, simply, but the appalling silence and inaction of the good people. you're wondering why they're not changing their mind.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I would like for that. So I'm going to talk about myself in a second because I feel like I am implicated in the current crisis, that Democrats are implicated in the current crisis. We may not be the blame for this moment, but we helped pave the pathway to this present. But I'm going to tell you that I'm upset about the CEO of a company right now that is groveling to Trump to spare his company.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And knows a larger picture and context in which we're at, but fails to stand up and tell the truth, so be it. The universities that are caving to him, the law firms that are caving to him, when is it enough when they come after the law firms? That's not enough? Okay, what about when they come after the nonprofits, Catholic Charities, UNICEF? Is that not enough for you?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Okay, well, what about when they come for the marginalized and they come for the weak? Is that not enough for you? Okay, well, what about when they come after... academic freedom. And the average American moderate are going to say, this is so outrageous and unusual, I'm going to leave my comfort zone or my own particular pecuniary interests and stand up for patriotism.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Because you look back at the chapters of American history, And see the people that said enough is enough. They have crossed the line. And this is a call for me to stand up for it. Those are the people that I'm also frustrated with who don't see it necessary or who are just looking out for their own financial interest.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
You know, I have very direct conversations with some of my best allies around the war in Ukraine for the past years. And You know, in private, they'll be very strong in their criticism. Some of them will say some things. But as you said, across the board, the crisis right now is not what Trump is doing simply. It's the silence, inaction, complicity of people who know better.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
The top 25 percent of their country has made such enormous wealth in the last 25 years. Such enormous privilege. The 4% of humanity that is Americans and the top 1% of that 4% are at the top of the pyramid.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And you can't give a damn enough about others in your country or in Ukraine or in Sudan to do something right now as this president is pulling embassies out of African countries that desperately need the American president. When is it enough for you? To know that your grandchildren are going to look at you and wonder in this period, what the hell did you did? So I'm, I'm with you.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
But now let me talk about myself. Democrats have got to find more ways of fighting and I'm seeing great signs of that happening. and Democrats that are inspiring me and encouraging me. And I sat down with my team after that CR fight we had in my caucus, the most contentious caucus meetings I think I've had in my years here in the Senate.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And I pulled my team together and I said, we have a leadership role amongst the caucus, but I have a leadership role as an individual and we're going to find new and creative ways to do good trouble. We've got ones coming up, things that I'm going to do that are unorthodox,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Lao Tzu would tell you not to... Art of War, not to tell your opposition what you're going to do before you do it. I guess I'm telling you here is I challenge my team to begin to come up with ideas of ways we can fight that are different, ways that we can take risks differently,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Well, I'm going to first start with you with, I think, a guy, an idea in leadership that's so important is you can't lead the people if you don't love the people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And I'm sorry that there are a lot of people in this country that don't feel like the Democrats give a damn about them, that they're not connected in them, that they don't feel like you're out there in the arena every day fighting for me. And if you don't solve that, you're not going to get loyalty from any demographic or base in the party. People don't care how much you know.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
We got bright and brilliant people in leadership all across the country. Don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And it just starts with something like that. When I was mayor of the city of Newark, my city, overwhelmingly the number one issue was crime. My pollsters said in all their life they have not seen a singular issue in my city.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
So I said, look, I have a lot of great plans and ideas when I became mayor that were going to bend the violence curve and the crime curve. And we did. I'm really proud of a lot of progress we made. But I knew that from number one, my city needs to know I'm fighting for them. And so
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
As soon as I got elected, I said, I'm moving into the sector of the city with the most shooting, the most dangerous sector in the city by police statistics. I'm moving myself in there. And then I said, I'm going to work full time as your mayor from sunup to sundown. But in sundown, I'm going to get into a car with my security detail.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
We're in charge of protecting me, but I'm going to start answering calls in the queue. I'm going to be doing patrols till four o'clock in the morning, the most dangerous areas. We just were out there chasing down literally in foot chases with a bank robber, you name it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And this is a moral crisis in our country. where people are afraid, understandably, many of the Republicans that have stood up and spoken truth to power, they're gone. Cheney, Jeff Flake, I could go through the courageous Republicans, many of whom I have very different myriad disagreements with.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
We knew that by the time the third month came in my mayorality, we saw that people got it in their gut that we were fighting for them. They saw me out there. They saw my priorities. They saw my focus. They understood that I was fighting for them.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
A huge loss. Because people are hurting. And we have not yet. And by the way, I just want you to know, I don't want to discount the incredible things that happened in that election that don't get enough attention. Like I only saw once in my 12 years where a senator won in their state, where the president of the other party also won. That was Susan Collins. But we did it multiple places.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Tammy Botbold, Winslotkin, Gallego. These are people that their brand.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Yeah. And so this is a time that in many ways, the Democratic Party has to get back focused on people, period. The reason why during my 25 hours, we centered the voices of Americans, the very Americans you're talking about that said, hey, Booker, you stood for a day. Well, I have two shifts at a diner. I'm on my feet all day or I work in a hospital and I'm around the clock 24 hours.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
emptying bedpans, cleaning floors, and doing that. Booker, hey, I'm a first responder fighting fires in the West because of climate change are getting worse and worse and worse. My shifts are 16 hours. So those are the folk that we said we're gonna center their voices And read their letters.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And I'm so happy hearing back from people that we spoke of and read their words on the Senate floor to hear now back from many of those folks and others about how meaningful it was. Then instead of a bunch of what they think of as just legislative processes going on, that the voices of Americans, that somebody found a way to break through with them.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
We need to do more things that show people that we're centering their struggle and that we're going to fight for them and that we actually have ideas now, once people feel like we are fighting for them, that are so much better than the bankrupt ideas of this president who just wants to, again, give outrageously great tax cuts to the wealthiest people who've already done so well in this last quarter century by taking away fundamental programs from the very people we're talking about.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I just want to say, again, as a guy who is a bit of a policy nerd and who fought to get things into the agenda of the Senate and the president, like me, Bennett and Brown on the Senate side, some great House leaders as well. But we lobbied before he swore his oath of office to include an expansion of the child tax credit. Talk about a populist idea.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
But when it came to a moral moment in this country where you had to choose patriotism over party, they chose patriotism and have suffered for it. So it does take a profile in courage right now to condemn this president in a full-throated way with the threat that he is posing in this case to the rules-based world order. But unfortunately, we're not seeing that kind of strength of conviction.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
It is the largest middle class tax cut in my lifetime. Between 80 and 90 percent of New Jerseyans got thousands of dollars more than It cut child poverty almost in half and had profound impact. We were one vote from making it short. That's a real delivered policy. When you talk about crime, my mind's going to explode.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
In fact, I think I'm the only person in the United States Senate that lives in a community, number one, that's at or below the poverty line, that has shootings in my neighborhood, had somebody shot at the top of my block. And, you know, if you polled my city after George Floyd and said, do you want more police, less police or the same amount of police?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
You would have probably gotten 80 percent of Newarkers to say we want more police. Now, we don't want them violating our rights, but we clearly need more safety and security. And the Biden administration, most people don't know this. Put more money. Our listeners know it. Yeah. Put more. Donald Trump is defunding police right now.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
You talk about what's going on in the ATF, the very people that are supposed to be enforcing our gun laws. Donald Trump is the defunder. Joe Biden put more money, and again, I say Joe Biden, credit to the Senate Democrats, House Democrats. We put more money into programs like the COPS program, burn JAG money over and over and over again.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I champion that as a guy who is in that space of creating a transparency with policing, accountability with policing, things that better professionalize the force, that help them with their mental health issues. I'm a big champion of police, but I'm also a big champion
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Of making sure that we're using Obama's 21st century policing task force, which had police leading, had incredible ideas that we have still failed to implement that would create higher professional standards, more transparency and stop the silliness. Like, hey, I can get fired from a job in Cincinnati and then apply for a job in Patterson, New Jersey.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And Patterson, New Jersey has no way of knowing that. That I was fired for police misconduct or was encouraged to leave. And so there are common sense things we can do to make policing better. Most of the major police organizations know that and support that. Donald Trump's own executive order that put limitations on no-knock warrants and chokeholds and the like, this is a false argument.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
There's nobody in the Senate that was calling for defunding the police. Everybody, every Democrat in the Senate has a record for increasing funding towards local policing. So what we're talking about here is more not that we didn't have the policy ideas, not that we didn't fight, but we had serious gaps in communicating.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
communicating authentically that connected with people's heads as well as their hearts and making people understand that we are fighting for them. As I've watched for my 12 years in the Senate, when we get into these scrums and are talking about like tax extenders, it's like, boring policy stuff. But I will never forget, Claire McCaskill was sitting next to me at a Senate caucus lunch.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I'm new in the Senate. Harry Reid puts on the board, this column, the tax extenders and we're fighting for and the tax extenders that they were fighting for. And this is a negotiation Harry Reid was talking about. And I could understand in plain English, what we were fighting for was an extension, child tax credit, earned income tax credit, I understood everything on our side of the ledger.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
But I'm, again, the worst thing that you often do when you have people perceive you as being really smart is you fail to ask the stupid questions. But here I was in a private moment. I turned to Claire McCaskill and said, Claire, I don't understand what these things are in this gobbledygook.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And she goes, oh, Corey, that's allowing corporations to get a bigger tax cut for, you know, when they offshore this and this. And she started, she's a really smart person and been in the Senate. And I'm like, why doesn't America see this? I looked at her and I go, like, they are fighting for the rich, powerful, record profit making corporations to get more advantages.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And we're fighting for the average American. Like, why don't people understand that this is the moral math? that has been going on for 25 years as from the Bush administration all the way to Donald Trump has been giving more and more tax cuts out, putting our country more in financial crisis because Republicans build up debt and deficits.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Democrats from Bill Clinton to Obama to even Biden are cutting deficits. Why don't people understand? Okay, okay, okay. Biden didn't cut any deficits. No, are you kidding me? I'm sorry.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
It's not a cut, but it's still going up by a trillion. There was still a deficit, but he reduced the overall deficit. Donald Trump was a profligate deficit creator.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Pound for pound, president for president. Who created more jobs? Democratic presidents. Who created more debt? By far, Republican presidents. Who did the stock market perform better under Democrats or Republicans? By far, Democratic presidents. I could go through who's created more shared wealth, who presided over more empowerment for working class people. This is a real debate.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
But I will defend the policies of the Clintons, Bidens, Obamas against what two terms of Trump and Bush have shown us in terms of wealth growth in this country.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
How can you say that when everybody from Tom Brady to Olympic powerlifters are vegans? Tom Brady in season eats a vegan diet. Like this is not even controversial anymore.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I'm not pushing my diet choices on everybody, but all the evidence says, I mean, we eat so much more highly processed meats and more than our ancestors. We have chronic disease that has run amok on our country. Our diets are killing ourselves.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Even people like me who are junk food vegans and are eating processed foods, we need to have a larger conversation about why our nation has the need for so much healthcare. One out of every $3 almost in government is for health. Majority of that is for chronic diseases that are preventable and diet related.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
So we have a lot of work to do about like why we have half of our population now that's diabetic or pre-diabetic. We have serious health problems. I am trying to be the change I want to see in the world. But whether you're vegan or paleo or what have you, unhealthy diets are unhealthy diets and they're across the board.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
But to prep for my 25 hours, I prepped like I was back in my athletic days, prepping for an athletic competition.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
You know, I started it's now been almost a year, but I was able to do 770 days in a row. of running every day, and it had its incredible benefits to my health. It had some bad benefits, like I got plantar fasciitis of all things. Yeah, the knees, how are the knees doing? We're getting old. Knees are fine. That was not an issue. It was weirdly plantar fasciitis that finally really slowed me down.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
But look, we know that you get vibrant by eating right and exercising, especially when you're like me, you're younger than I am, especially when you're a middle-aged African-American male. We have some of the worst health out, us and Native American men, Latino men probably in there too. Worst health outcomes in America.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I know that I have to, if I want to be around for a while longer in this fight, I got to take care of myself.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Well, I am definitely benching. Okay. Do you have a max? We got a max bench? I just got this new machine that's being delivered this week and I'm dying to just get on it because I'm this gamification. This is why things like these new, you know, bikes that have those computer screens on them are so good because they get into your mind. So I got a tonal. Have you ever heard of this?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
First of all, strength comes from moral clarity. Donald Trump has no moral guiding force. It is simple, resolute. This is what we stand for as a people. You know, Donald Trump is violating, as I said, from the strength of the Ronald Reagan, the evil empire, tear down this wall, Mr. Gorbachev. He's violating the moral clarity of a Kennedy.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Okay, I've heard of it. I haven't, you know, I haven't done it. Yeah, I dropped a large part of my Senate salary on it. But LeBron James talks about it as this, it's basically resistance training, but they measure everything. It's really, it seems really incredible. One of my former chief of staff. turned me on to it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And I'm excited to compete against him and others on this new machine because resistance training for testosterone, for joint strength, everything.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Yeah, well, my family and my mom is rooting for me, still hoping that I become a dad. So I got to think about that. I got to think about it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Somewhere around here. Yeah. I have my phone right in front of me.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I do have Twitter on there. Okay. I want you to open it up. It goes right to a tweet by Elon Musk.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I am live. I'm on my Twitter. What am I searching for?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
D-I-M-O-G-C. Yeah, that was me. Tim Miller.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I feel a sense of this is a redemption moment.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
One of us is being redeemed right now.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I can't believe I blocked you way back when.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I can't believe you're now unblocked on my... Thank you, Senator. Yes. That is really kind of cool. This is a powerful moment. That is. We're friends again. Hold on. I got to follow you. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Back in those days on Twitter, I used to live on Twitter. Did so much back in the good days. Got on it early. Used to tell my constituents, tweet me things and I'll address them. So I used to respond all the time with two words on it. You know, getting potholes filled in minutes, not like months like it used to for the previous.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Anyway, I remember I get to the Senate and I'm still living on Twitter, doing a lot on Twitter. And but I one of the things I used to love doing is taking a troll, somebody yelling at me and just saying, look, I don't agree with what you're saying, but I love you. Never let you pull me so low as to hate you or I'd say something nice. This guy vehemently attacked me.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country. Donald Trump is ask what you can do for Donald Trump. He seems to respect people that are amoral, like he respects when asked, you know, who his favorite world leaders are. He constantly refers to strongman dictators, people who have eroded democratic norms and principles.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I said back saying, hey, respect your right to your own opinion. I wish you the best that I just something really nice back to him. I'm walking through my front office and they say my staff loves. No, no. I'd love to take the phones when they're taking constituent calls. People won't expect to get their senator. And my staff said, you want to take this? And I got on the phone.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
It was this guy saying, is this Cory Booker? He goes, I tweeted at you. And I remembered his mean tweet. And my daughter saw your response. And I was calling to apologize. I don't agree with anything you say or do. But I want to apologize for how I spoke to you. And I said, sir, your daughter sounds like she's better than both of us. And I'm so grateful for the apology and for your service.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
He was a veteran. And I said, but now can I challenge you on one thing, if you'll be so generous, that we don't agree on anything. And then I started just telling him all the stuff that we were doing for New Jersey veterans. And he said to me, I didn't know any of that. And before you know it, we have a really great constructive conversation.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And so that to me was one of my favorite moments because living behind our Twitter feeds and just hurling things at each other, just widen the distance and undermine the truth in America is that we do share a lot of common ground and common cause. And these attentions machines competing for our eyes are
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Their corporate models are highlighting our differences and really creating outrage machines, telling us that we're morally superior than the other side. I tell the story all the time about Van Jones going on what was it called? Crossfire and sitting with Newt Gingrich. And Brene Brown has this wonderful thing where she says it's hard to hate up close. So pull people in.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And the two of them got together. They don't agree on a lot, but they agree on some things and they realize they like each other. And they go to the producers and say, hey, let's do a final segment and call it ceasefire and talk about where we agree. And Republicans, Democrats agree. Producers let them do it. But then they stopped them after a handful of shows and said, you can't do this anymore.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Ratings are going down. The corporate model does not work. People are turning off ceasefire. Yeah, turning off ceasefire. Cook it over. Okay, I want Fox instead. Yeah. So, I mean, that's the problem we have is we all have to work through this. People who only know me through Republican lenses have a certain opinion of me. And I've met these folks in airports, at restaurants.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And they're kind of surprised that I'm like, I have some decency about me. And because we create such horrible caricatures of the other side that it makes it almost impossible for us to believe that we have shared humanity and shared dignity and the basis with which to advance our country.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I look forward to it. Again, I'm happy that we're Twitter friends.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I'll tell you what. If you see me causing some good trouble that you think is in any way worthy... Let's call that an admission on your part and an agreement that we will meet at some vegan place and share like a vegan donut or something like that. Deal. I bet you I can make you like a vegan place.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
So I think strength comes from having a moral core. And standing up, regardless of where the political winds might go, is having that kind of conviction. And Donald Trump does not have that. In addition to that, the way that world leaders play him The way that world leaders manipulate him is, to me, so obvious.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
People know the playbook of how to flatter him, how to give him sort of a false sense of confidence and ease, and then clean his cloth. The great dealmaker seems to not know how to really make a deal that's in the best interest of this country. And watching him continually get played on the world stage is very frustrating.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Well, again... Not only the deal they put forward, but then Donald Trump's almost childish tantrum after Zelensky didn't take a deal that no objective observer would say the Ukrainian people should accept. Tepid security guarantees, a ban on joining the alliance, which is one of their biggest sort of points of leverage.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
A surrendering of land in which Ukrainians have suffered and died upon, bled for, gave up tremendous blood and treasure for, just capitulating and rewarding the aggressor. All of this is offensive on its face.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And for Donald Trump to make this the beginning point of his negotiations, he went into these negotiations surrendering, without the Ukrainians there, but surrendering their positions and leverage. capitulating to Putin.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
This will go down in history as one of the worst negotiations and peace proposals made by any American president of this last century, going back to World War II and World War I. And the kind of aligning yourself with the people that are upending the world rules-based order is such an offense. I had a
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Foreign minister of a European country sitting in my office asked to meet with me, closed the door. This was days after we, the United States of America, in a UN resolution sided with China and Russia against the European Union, against our NATO allies, against other free democracies, failing to support Ukraine and condemn Russia. It was around the anniversary of it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And the guy just looked at me with a sense of bewilderment and astonishment and saying, is this real? Is this real? And that's really what we've done. We've left our allies perplexed that America isn't just turning its face inward. It is actually actively undermining democracy.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
the democratic nations of the world, upending the world economy, upending global security issues, leaving global alliances for everything from climate change to mutual security. This president is so destructive that most of the major nations of the world, our normal allies, are trying now to figure out how to move forward. Nations committed to values and principles we used to once
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
adhere to, how to move forward without the United States of America. And that includes our closest allies like Canada that he demeans and degrades, calling the 51st state the nation that more than any other has stood with the United States war after war, stood beside us, bled beside us, sacrificed for us, and frankly, to both of our mutual benefits, has strong economic ties.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Not only my foreign colleague, but my former partner on so much good work on USAID foreign aid. I mean, you could play quotes from him a few years ago and lay them next to what he's doing right now. And it's almost like he's turning his back on things he stood for and fought for when he was a United States senator. He is... I know this man... Again, I know what he values, what he's fought for.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I've heard him with moral clarity condemn Donald Trump in his primary fight against him and then suddenly fall in line with Donald Trump. I know what his record in the Senate has stood for. And now, again, he is doing things directly.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
This isn't just policy. This isn't just aspirations for power. We are seeing both the world and our nation change in such fundamental ways. We are in such a state of global crisis and such a state of national crisis as who will America be?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
In the world and at home, and there's such a trashing of global democratic ideals and here at home, the values, ideals and principles of both sides have committed themselves to that not to understand the gravity of the decisions people are making right now and the erosion. of who we are and what we stand for and the consequences of that.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
The problem with the way we talk often about these things is we belittle or normalize them as if it's just the day-to-day political scorecard. This is not politics. This is really a crisis of morals and values that have real-life consequences on security of nations, preservation of democracies, and frankly, here at home, the well-being of hundreds of millions of people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
It goes further than that. And again, their idea is to flood the zone. And I want to just give you an example that it's just not getting enough attention. Like, you know, there are people here on temporary protected status from Afghanistan, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
Many of them are Christians who fled the Taliban, who killed Americans, who have brought about such savagery against women, really the people that were our enemy over there. And Donald Trump has sent them letters saying that we're sending you back, that you need to leave our country.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
people who have a record of supporting the United States, who we, and again, in a bipartisan way, worked to secure here, he's now upending. And so his immigration policies are such a violation, as you said, of core constitutional values that we've seen the Supreme Court 9-0 affirm, things like due process, but also a deeper, our commitment to being a nation that
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
that is a light of hope and freedom and opens its doors to people escaping persecution in the case of Afghanistan, persecution that we know all too well and have lost American lives in fighting against.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
This is where I, I've got to not disagree with you, but help you understand like the, My parents came up in a time where the laws of this nation, the laws of this nation denied them equal dignity and equal rights. I mean, literally, my parents were stopped from buying the house that I grew up in based upon this legacy of housing discrimination in this country.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And so understand this, like my parents, my grandparents believed in this nation. believed in it and the values that Donald Trump is trashing, even when this country didn't believe in them, they love this nation, even when this nation didn't love them back. And that's the tradition that we have to call upon right now.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
The tradition that made LGBTQ Americans fight to make America live up to its promise and its hope or women or immigrants, Catholics back in the time that there was an entire political party called the know nothings. This is a time where, That I can't surrender to cynicism about America.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
I can't allow the demagoguery that echoes the past from Father Conklin to McCarthyism to the Japanese internment to turning away of the St. I think it was St. Louis that brought Holocaust survivors and then they were sent back. All of these things are wretched, dark corners of our history. But people didn't give up in believing in who we are.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
As the great poet Langston Hughes said, America never was America to me. but I swear this oath, America will be. And so this is that kind of conviction that's needed. And I refuse to stop believing in us.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And just because we have a demagogic leader who is such an affront to the values I think this country most adheres to, this is the time that we should be speaking and affirming with even greater conviction of who we are and fighting against the forces that have been there since our beginning. that seem to want to undermine the highest ideals and values of our nation.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And even our founders, these imperfect geniuses, these guys who called Native Americans savages and blacks fractions of human beings and didn't even refer to women, the humility that they had in understanding what it would make to make an imperfect, more perfect union, and their appeal to the highest virtues of mankind. Read
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
George Washington's farewell address, who almost said that history is going to judge him harshly. And he understood that his imperfections and mistakes of humility that Donald Trump has an inability to show, but always they were ascribing to the higher angels of our nature.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1028: Cory Booker: A National Crisis and a Global Crisis
And this idea that America, though that not there yet, was on a journey towards greater justice that future generations would advance. That's the traditions right now that I feel. And it's often out of the darkest moments, the most painful moments. that we somehow not only find a way through them, but find a way to more advance towards the truth that I think is the calling of this country.
The Daily
Shen Yun: The Dark Side of a Dance Troupe
Tonight, I rise with the intention of getting in some good trouble. I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able. I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis, and I believe that...
The Daily
Shen Yun: The Dark Side of a Dance Troupe
And so I've tried over the last 25 hours and one minute to center the conversation back on what will we do of good conscience.
The Daily
Shen Yun: The Dark Side of a Dance Troupe
This is a moral moment. It's not left or right, it's right or wrong. It's getting good trouble. My friend, Madam President, I yield the floor.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump's "Liberation Day" Tariffs & Booker's Speech Breaks Senate Record | Melissa Arnot Reid
Update the history books. Last night, Democratic Senator Cory Booker concluded the longest speech in Senate history, clocking in at 25 hours and five minutes. He was protesting what he called a crisis brought on by the Trump administration's policies.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump's "Liberation Day" Tariffs & Booker's Speech Breaks Senate Record | Melissa Arnot Reid
Does he get any bathroom breaks? Did he have a bathroom break? No sitting and no bathroom break.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump's "Liberation Day" Tariffs & Booker's Speech Breaks Senate Record | Melissa Arnot Reid
It's going to be a rocky road, and Trump has admitted that. Trump has acknowledged that there will be some minor inflationary aspect of that. As he begins to realign the economy to put America first, everybody knows. And when they voted in November of 2024, they knew that's what they were voting for.
The Dan Bongino Show
What REALLY Happened In Wisconsin? | Episode 13
When is it going to be enough? My voice is inadequate. My efforts today are inadequate. to stop what they're trying to do. But we, the people, are powerful. We are strong. We have changed history. We have bent the arc of the moral universe. And now is that moral moment again. It's the moral moment again.
The Dan Bongino Show
What REALLY Happened In Wisconsin? | Episode 13
God bless America. We need you now. God bless America. If you love her, if you love your neighbor, if you love this country, show your love. Stop them from doing what they're trying to doing for almost 20 hours. We have laid out... what they're trying to do. 20 hours. I want to stand more, and I will, but I'm begging people, don't let this be another normal day in America.
The Dan Bongino Show
What REALLY Happened In Wisconsin? | Episode 13
Please, God, please, God, don't let them take Medicaid away from 10, 20, 30, or 40 million Americans who desperately need it. Don't let them do it.
The Dan Bongino Show
What REALLY Happened In Wisconsin? | Episode 13
Chuck Schumer is the only time in my life I can tell you no.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Shocking New Biden Cognitive Decline Details, Elon's Future, and Cory's Long Speech, with The Fifth Column | Ep. 1040
But I really spent time dehydrating myself beforehand, so I did not have to go to the bathroom. You didn't have to go to the bathroom at all for 25 hours. Um, again, my challenge was... was that my strategy was to stop eating. I think I stopped eating on Friday and then to stop drinking the night before I started on Monday. And that had its benefits and it had its really downsides.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Shocking New Biden Cognitive Decline Details, Elon's Future, and Cory's Long Speech, with The Fifth Column | Ep. 1040
And so instead of fighting or figuring out how to go to the bathroom, I ended up, I think, really, unfortunately, dehydrating myself.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Shocking New Biden Cognitive Decline Details, Elon's Future, and Cory's Long Speech, with The Fifth Column | Ep. 1040
We have that. Let's watch.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Shocking New Biden Cognitive Decline Details, Elon's Future, and Cory's Long Speech, with The Fifth Column | Ep. 1040
Chuck Schumer, it's the only time in my life I can tell you no.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Shocking New Biden Cognitive Decline Details, Elon's Future, and Cory's Long Speech, with The Fifth Column | Ep. 1040
And I could not understand, and I violated this rule knowingly, why these issues should be withheld from the public. Now, I appreciate the comments of my colleagues. This is about the closest I'll probably ever have in my life to an I am Spartacus moment. God.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Crack on Live TV as Pressure Grows
and they're feeling pain that to them was unimaginable in a president they put their trust in that would lower their prices and make their lives more easily not do things that make us so much less safe look all this talk about usaid i have visited people on the front line stopping infectious diseases from coming here to have scientists in dangerous areas like kampala suddenly not be able to get their access to their cell phone their emails and be cut off
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Crack on Live TV as Pressure Grows
by a president and Elon Musk who are in a ham-handed, incompetent way, cutting funding that makes no sense and ultimately won't make a difference on our deficit because the president wants to rack it up to give tax cuts to the wealthiest and create even bigger deficits in our country.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Crack on Live TV as Pressure Grows
I think the most effective messaging is talking about the crisis that's happening to Americans.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Crack on Live TV as Pressure Grows
I'm saying we should be talking about what's happening to Americans. I had one of the biggest hospital leaders in my state call me up and talk about the cancer research that's now in crisis, literally ruining years of research, literally having to take cancer treatments away from people, cutting edge breakthrough treatments.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Crack on Live TV as Pressure Grows
What's crazy is crisis when you have planes falling from the sky and you're cutting FAA folks. It is a crisis when nuclear regulatories who are keeping our safe regulators are being cut. I could go through this. I have farmers calling me up.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Crack on Live TV as Pressure Grows
who put out tens of thousands of dollars under the understanding in the deal that they would get certain resources from the federal government, now threatening to lose their farms.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Leaders Crack on Live TV as Pressure Grows
Everywhere in America, red state to blue states, we are seeing real crises that Elon Musk, who's a billionaire who never has to think about where his next meal is coming from, where his medical treatment and how that will be paid for, Americans are feeling a crisis right now.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Shuts Down as World Unleashes Fury at Him
Some people might say, oh, they disappeared that person, but they're not an American citizen. Well, if there's no due process, how do you know they're not an American citizen?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Shuts Down as World Unleashes Fury at Him
If they have the right to take somebody off of our streets, throw them on the plane because they don't like their tattoo, and end them up in one of the worst jails on the planet Earth without any due process, where they've already admitted that they've made mistakes. That's not our country. This is a cancer on the soul of our nation. And we have got to say no.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Shuts Down as World Unleashes Fury at Him
There is a way to do this in a bipartisan manner to create more strength and safety and security, but to create an immigration system that serves our economy and upholds our values. That's what I stand for. That's what I'll fight for. Thank you.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Massive Protests Take USA by Storm
We achieved every great thing in this country because average citizens
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Massive Protests Take USA by Storm
stood up and said enough is enough they banded together and bonded together across differences across gender race and even party and said it's time we invite to bend the arc of the moral universe more towards justice and so what i'm seeing now is outrageous and i hope we all are outraged but it's time to turn our anger into action our worry into work. It's time to turn our fear into fight.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Massive Protests Take USA by Storm
Because we have seen these kind of fights before and we won.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Well, let me first say that I may have disagreed with Senator Schumer vehemently in this instance.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
But anybody who looks at the Senate in the last three or four years would have to say this guy, this tactician behind the scenes has racked up one hell of a record. I mean, the bipartisan bills that I watched in a front row seat, often being asked for assistance to get through, bipartisan gun bill, bipartisan chips act, bipartisan infrastructure bill. This is Chuck Schumer's leadership.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And then he pulled something off in the last election that rarely has happened. I think only once before in my time in the Senate where a senator won re-election in a state where the president of the opposite party won. Well, Chuck pulled the trifecta off. He won in Wisconsin. He won in Michigan. He won in Arizona. Seats that, by all intents and purposes, we should have lost.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Maybe you're an immigrant that's never broken the law. Maybe you're a citizen. Even if you think the administration's immigration agenda doesn't apply to you, please know that the reckless behavior we're seeing erodes all of our rights. And the American mother and the American child right now, whose husband was unjustly and illegally deported and is right now in an El Salvadorian prison.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And we obviously had great candidates, but Chuck was
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
No, I wouldn't say indefinitely. Look, the last baby boomers are leaving power in American politics. This is the last baby boomer president. Chuck is the last baby boomer leader of the Senate. A new generation is dawning. And my critique thus far is, of my generation and millennials is that we have failed to step up and say, like generations before us, that it's time to dream America anew.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
I'm going to evaluate it. We have an inquiry out to the committee for permission to go on a formal CODEL, but I'm watching the whole sort of immigration field and finding out where my presence, where me physically visiting and going is most important, and whether it's CCOT or some of the detention facilities here in our state or with some of the people. I was in touch with
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Some Afghans are here on that just got word, in fact, that they no longer have temporary protective status and they're to leave within the week. These are Afghan Christians. who are being told to go back to a country run by the Taliban. So wherever I can help bring attention, I think that I would say it was nothing short of heroic what my friend Chris Van Hollen did.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
I know a bunch of House members are in El Salvador now. The question is, is how do we highlight and bring attention to the horrible immigration policies of Donald Trump –
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
I know you ask questions as are the Democrats. I'm trying to broaden this to say are Americans. The responsibility falls on all of us. That's totally fair. But you've got a job and I do too. But New Jersey did not send me to Washington to be a great Democratic senator. They sent me to be a great New Jersey senator and a great fighter for America.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And I am trying to talk – and this is why during the 25 hours we brought in the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Republican gubernatorial voices, all to make the point – from their own words, why this president is so dangerous and why these are a time of moral urgency.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And right now, one of my biggest areas of focus is stopping this bill that will gut Medicaid and healthcare for 80, 90 million people and endanger hospitals. And we need Republicans of good conscience like we did in 2017 with the Affordable Care Act, to vote with us. And so playing this as a partisan game should cheapen the larger cause of the country.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And so this is the time that America needs moral leadership and not political leadership. And that's what I'm standing up and saying. I'm accepting responsibility for my own leadership failings. And I'm telling people right now, I want to appeal to the soul, the heart, the conscience of our country.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And it's not just as important for leaders now to speak against Trump, but also to capture the imagination of people for how we can rise above this moment. The world is calling to us right now. I sit with world leader after world leader in my office and And here, please do something to stop this deterioration of the post-World War II order.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Ambassadors and ministers from other countries will come in my office right here and sit down and basically give a WTF, sometimes quite literally. I remember after Trump sided with China and Russia against European allies on Ukraine. It was such a stunning blow to people that work in diplomacy on a regular basis to see America turn their back like this.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
People now who don't understand at a time where Europeans, the EU, England are suffering from Chinese bad practices on stealing intellectual property, currency manipulation. Hey, why aren't we all fighting? working together to ratchet up pressure on the Chinese. Instead, he puts 10% tariffs on everybody across the board and then his 100-plus percent tariffs on China.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
It makes no sense to them the way America's working. How dare Donald Trump treat dictators and authoritarian leaders like pals and friends and allies and treat allies, literally calling them dictators, and treat them in this way? This is despicable behavior from the highest office in the land.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
I see it very clearly. Were there things happening on campuses that were dead wrong in my book? Absolutely. But yes, Donald Trump is exploiting anti-Semitism. in order to pursue an agenda that is far greater and far more authoritarian.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
We know that people preyed upon Jewish populations during the Red Scare and used hate and anti-Semitism in a different way then as a tool to pursue what I consider a dark chapter in American history. political opportunists will exploit fear, hate, and division for their larger authoritarian aims. And that's exactly what Donald Trump is doing.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Chuck Schumer, it's the only time in my life I can tell you no.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Yeah, look, there's a great book, How Democracies Die, I think is the name of it. They talk about the different signs. One is signs I started seeing when Obama was president, where the letter of the law is followed, but the spirit of the Constitution isn't, when they wouldn't give Merrick Garland even a hearing.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
That was slow unwinding of the spirit of bipartisanship or the spirit of democratic norms and traditions. And I've seen that erode even more quickly, obviously, under this current president. in a disastrous way. But one of the other signs they talked about was the heightening and the raising of political violence and threats of violence. We're seeing chilling things.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Esther Solis was a federal judge in my state. A murderer went to her house and murdered her child and shot and severely wounded her husband. That was bad enough. Threats at that point on federal judges was up about 400%.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
But to see how they're skyrocketing even more now under Donald Trump and what I think is some of his incendiary language – and there's been incendiary language across the board on federal judges. And now you're seeing – I saw her interviewed, shaken, because people are sending pizzas to federal judges who are deciding against Donald Trump – from her son's name, Daniel Anderall.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
They're using her murdered son's name to send pizzas to the homes of federal judges almost to say, we know where you live. And so, yeah, I'm definitely facing a whole new order of security concerns in my own life as senators on both sides of the aisle. When Joni Ernst dared to question the qualifications of
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
of Pete Hegseth, what she endured online, the vicious things that were being said about her, the political threats, and more, in my opinion, were vile. And we're just seeing it go up more and more, and this is something that has to stop in our country.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
I will make no sort of guesses as to what her internal deliberations were.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Look, even the most senators and congresspeople on both sides who I've talked to know that we are living in a scary environment.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Well, first of all, I hope it's chilling to some to understand that it takes years, years to establish democratic norms and traditions, decades, decades to strengthen democratic principles and ideals, generations to instill them within the hearts and minds of a people. But it could take days to unravel them, days to tear them down.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And I have never in my life been as worried about our country, about our democracy, about our traditions as I have now. But I will say this. Shiva in the Hindu faith is the god of destruction. And I know Donald Trump would get glee from me comparing him to any kind of god. Yeah. But Shiva is also a valued God because you can't have renewal and rebirth without facing destruction.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
I am a prisoner of hope. I always will be. In fact, I think the best way to answer despair is to not let it have the last word. That's what hope is. And so I will always counter despairing times with telling what I think is the truth of our country's history.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
It has often been out of the darkest times where we've seen the infernos of hell, where we've seen destruction, where we've seen Shiva visit itself upon our nation. But it's often been from those times, from those ashes, has risen the best of who we are.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And that's really what I'm working for right now, not just to stop the destruction coming from the White House, but to usher in the next generation of leadership in this country to help us to dream America anew and redeem the dream for so many who've given up on the very dream of America.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Thank you.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
There is a deeper, more grave attack going on on our fundamental constitutional principles that I believe we all share. A defiance amongst the Trump administration that seems... a resolute to tear down really a century of traditions, or at least post-World War II traditions in world order.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And he is effectively thus far doing it without Republican congressional leaders doing anything, not just to stop him, but even to offer up a strong rebuke or critique. And so I think that the danger signs this time are far greater.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And in less than 100 days, as I have been told from people doing scientific research, of people doing international work to stop the spread of infectious diseases, from people who are talking about agency investigations into horrific crimes, that a lot of the things that he's doing is irreversible, or at least will take a generation to try to undo.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And so the consequences every day that this administration continues in this manner are grave and great.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
So... I'll start with one of them that I mentioned. I'm having a lot of people who are doing a lot of research who point example after example of how Trump's actions have stopped it, whether it's actually taking scientists themselves through immigration action and bouncing them out of our country or putting them in detention or just cutting the funding.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
As someone was telling me, a university who's cut their postdoc programs, who's had to stop the number of people they're letting in that are doing fundamentally critical research, that you can't just turn those things on and off at a time that our competitors like China are doubling down and investing in their research and their science, understanding that the future will be shaped fundamentally by
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
by those who are discovering it or inventing it, that this is not a loss that we can just bounce back from. Trump has taken... a page out of China's book. I mean, they have taken a page out of our book. And the best way to point that is that China attacked their universities and their cultural revolution in a stunning way.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
They attacked these elite institutions that were doing science research as well as culture. And then they realized in our generation how much that cost them a century of growth A century of expanded potential and possibility. And now they're seeing things like breakthroughs in AI, robotics, EVs. They want to define the future. They want to lead in the same way that we did.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
in the 1980s, 90s, when I was coming out of college. And what has Trump done in 100 days?
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Is he's declared a cultural revolution of his own, attacking universities, attacking folks that are on the frontiers of science and research, putting them on their defensive, cutting them billions of dollars, making them in a situation where they are stopping research or stopping an inflow of the world's best researchers.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Cannot say in the world of Trump, like he's losing his ability to surprise me when people ask me about his talking about a third term or deporting American citizens to a gulag in El Salvador. I mean, these outrageous things he's said, I've come to expect them and believe him when he says these things. So I don't know if there's surprise. There's been a lot of profound disappointment there.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
I know my Republican colleagues in the Senate and some in the House. I know their core values. I listen to them as everything from the signal gate and the problems with Hegseth all the way to just cutting. bipartisan-approved investments in things like science, in some of the bipartisan bills that we pass that deal with gun violence, bipartisan investments in health innovations.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
I know privately from conversations how much they object to these things. And I guess right now where my heartbreak lies is that so far you've seen scant few people willing to step up and risk because there is a reality of people who did stand up, did speak out, who are no longer in Congress.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
One of the reasons why politicians don't act is because the demand from the people is not enough yet. And so as much as we want to point a finger people who are elected to positions, which is justified. I also want to ask a lot of other powerful people in this country who are remaining silent.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
We've seen what many corporate leaders are doing right now, which is instead of speaking up and speaking truth, they're kowtowing for their own private deals. In a tariff regime, do you go and say, hey, please exclude electronics? Or do you go and say, this is fundamentally wrong? You are hurting the economy.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And I may face some backlash for this, but when they look back at this moment in history, I'm going to be one of those leaders in our country, whatever the sector is, from the faith community to the business community to the nonprofit community to the foundation community. When are more Americans going to speak up?
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And we've seen this before in too many countries where there's been democratic backsliding. And then worse cases from history of my grandparents' generation is that when good people are silent, that's when bad things and bad people flourish. And Donald Trump is trying to intimidate people. He's trying to threaten people.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And too many people are allowing him to continue because they're thinking of what is in their own personal financial well-being and not what is in the well-being of our democracy. And it frustrates me. And now at a moment where you have to choose between the kind of gains that you've had, the financial comfort and security, or are you going to choose the well-being of your economy?
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Are you going to choose to stand up for those vulnerable people? who are right now in the crosshairs, the sick who are going to be losing Medicaid, the hungry that are going to be losing food stamps, the disabled who are going to be losing the support they get from programs like Medicaid.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
At the time when this country's very constitutional principles are being eroded, where Supreme Court decisions 9-0, Supreme Court decisions are being violated, where a president is not asking what your country can do for you, what you can do for your country, is asking very pointedly, ask what you can do for me. What have you done for Donald Trump?
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Look, I've served in this institution now for 12-plus years. The fact that we're not holding oversight hearings, not even questioning what Elon Musk is doing when he was under investigation by multiple government agencies – and has eviscerated those investigations.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
He is scraping Americans' data, Social Security data, with no accountability, no questioning, not one hearing, where there was a violation of all of our ideals of what should be national security protocols by using Signal. We're just finding out about another set of violations, that this might be a pattern in practice. And again, not one oversight hearing. Congress has laid down
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
and violated what our founders wanted to do, which was to check the power of the executive. And now we have an executive that's operating with impunity in a way that dictators and kings that are our founders wanted to prevent. This is a crisis in our country. And it will continue, as Frederick Douglass says, the limits of tyranny are prescribed by the endurance of those who are oppressed.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
How much will we endure until we say enough is enough?
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
Yes. Where? Harvard University. Of course, God bless America, the richest university on the planet could not find the moral conviction to stand up and do what's right. A number of law firms who do have M&A practices that might be decimated have stepped up and are doing the right thing and saying this is wrong. Now, it's still limited, but it's a start.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
So I was encountering a lot of anger towards me because when I would explain to people that we don't have the votes as Democrats, we don't have the ability to stop this spending bill or stop this confirmation, that was wholly unsatisfying to people who were afraid, who were themselves angry.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
who couldn't imagine these things happening in their country and expected more from me and more from the Democratic Party. And we decided after I had a disagreement with my leader, Chuck Schumer, over the continuing resolution and what tactic we should take, what larger strategy we should pursue,
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
I decided that I had to shift my own way of working now when I felt like my constituents were demanding from me that I take risks that I think outside of the box. And we are hearing letters that literally would render my staff into tears.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
We had people coming to our office, not even from our state because they saw this as an outpost, to tell us that they were going to lose their farm because Donald Trump had cut contracts. Stories that just were wrenching the guts of my staff. And they said that we've got to find a way to make those stories break through.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And so that was part of our strategy, was how do you get the nation to listen a little bit more in this terribly competitive attention economy that we have? What could break through? And obviously, in the back of my mind, I knew
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
That the same year that John Lewis wrote a letter to Martin Luther King and King then sent him a bus ticket that began that 1957, that year, was the same year that Strom Thurmond gave the longest speech in Senate history trying to stop Trump. Martin Luther King and John Lewis were doing in that letter exchange.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And so as a Black man who was not envisioned by Strom Thurmond ever serving in that body, in fact, I'm the fourth Black person ever popularly elected to that body after Barack Obama, who was the third, we knew that there was, if I could last 24 hours and 18 minutes, that we could potentially command
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
some attention from the public, never imagining that we would get on TikTok alone over 300 million people liking the live stream. We never thought that it would be as successful as it was.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Cory Booker: “America Needs Moral Leadership, and Not Political Leadership”
And so that's the key here, which is to deal with the poverty of empathy we have in our nation right now, the poverty of realizing that this is happening to my neighbor, that that fundamentally implicates me and endangers me.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Fresh from scandal over group chat attack plans, Hegseth's conduct opens him to ridicule
and even our aspirations as a people from our highest offices, a sense of common decency. These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Fresh from scandal over group chat attack plans, Hegseth's conduct opens him to ridicule
and stabilized his mental health because of his prescription drugs, but then stopped being able to afford them, started skimping on the drugs, had a mental health crisis, lost his job, and his whole life, just stabilized.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Fresh from scandal over group chat attack plans, Hegseth's conduct opens him to ridicule
Tonight, I rise with the intention of getting in some good trouble. I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able. I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Fresh from scandal over group chat attack plans, Hegseth's conduct opens him to ridicule
Republicans as well as Democrats are talking to me about what they feel is a sense of dread about a growing crisis or what they point to about what is going wrong, that bedrock commitments in our country that both sides rely on, that people from all backgrounds rely on, those bedrock commitments are being broken. Unnecessary hardships are being borne by Americans of all backgrounds.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Fresh from scandal over group chat attack plans, Hegseth's conduct opens him to ridicule
and institutions which are special in America, which are precious, which are unique in our country, are being recklessly, and I would say even unconstitutionally affected, attacked, and even shattered. In just 71 days, a president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans' safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy,
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
Thanks for having me on on a really awful day for our nation. Frankly, it's an awful day for Ukraine and our nation. The one nation that really is celebrating right now is Vladimir Putin in Russia.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
I had a European leader in my office who came and asked to come meet with me privately to express his distress over Ukraine, who told me about what does it say about our world that for the first time, to his knowledge, we've ever seen in a U.N. resolution around the Security Council, America side with China and Russia. and condemning what Putin did and not their European democratic allies.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
We are seeing a world shift right now that belies what Republicans and Democrats have been saying in lockstep. We've taken trips together over into Europe to stand with Ukraine. We've had Zelensky multiple times meeting with us, meeting with us as senators and private, him receiving standing ovations.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
We had a joint session of Congress where he addressed us and we stood up and people have said time and time again, That this is a stand not just in defense of Ukraine, but defense of democracy.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
And if we lose in Ukraine, then authoritarian leaders around the world will be more emboldened and America will be dragged into more and more conflicts defending democracy against autocracy and authoritarianism. So this is a significant moment and a significant shift in American history.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
where we have our president who is taunting a world leader, lying about his approval ratings, lying about who started the war, lying about who is the dictator, accusing Zelensky of being a dictator, not the obvious one in Vladimir Putin, taunting him before he came in. This is the guy who was impeached
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
Once, one of his two impeachments was over him trying to extort Zelensky, withholding weapons unless he got commitments to do his political bidding in his attacks against Joe Biden. This is a sad day for our nation. This is a shift in global geopolitics. And this is something that I am praying and hoping that we can overcome.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
But unfortunately, we're seeing a Republican Party right now that would rather bow to political pressure than stand tall for policies and principles.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
You know, again, this is a shift in our politics, that the Senate used to be a place where, right or wrong, people would criticize a president when they stepped out of line, even one of their own party. And here is a situation that is so grave. And my colleagues know this because we meet with these leaders. I was in communication today with an Estonian leader
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
This has struck fear in their country because Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, these countries know the threat of Russia and worry because Putin is using the same rhetoric with them he used about the Ukrainian people. This has grand implications beyond just Ukraine. And we know our history, but yet are failing to learn from it. If there's ever a time for political courage, even if it means
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
undermining one's ability to get reelected. This is a time for courage. And we know from our history, when good men do nothing, that is the ingredient that is necessary for evil to be triumphant.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Who's that good for?': Maddow connects the dots on Donald Trump's behavior toward Russia
Thank you, Rachel.
WSJ What’s News
Investors Hold Their Breath as Trump Tariffs Loom
My team and I have really been struggling in this period. Democrats have to own up for a lot. I think that we've contributed to where we are. I'm not just talking about losing the election. I'm talking about a lot of the ways that the partisan politics of this country have worked. And we should be stepping up and saying we accept a lot of responsibility for this moment.
WSJ What’s News
Investors Hold Their Breath as Trump Tariffs Loom
But we also have a lot of responsibility for meeting this moment.