WASHINGTON – In a rare and fiery display on the Senate floor, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., forcefully criticized fellow Democrats this week, accusing them of enabling President Donald Trump and warning that the party needs to “wake up.”
The confrontation unfolded on July 29 when Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., attempted to fast-track a package of bipartisan bills aimed at expanding support and funding for police departments. Booker objected, proposing an amendment that would require the administration to distribute public safety grants without political bias.
That move sparked immediate backlash from Cortez Masto, who said Booker had ample opportunity to raise concerns earlier, when the bills passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee — a committee on which Booker sits. “This is ridiculous. This is an attempt to kill all of these bills,” she said.
Booker didn’t hold back in response. “This, to me, is the problem with Democrats in America right now,” he declared. “We’re willing to be complicit to Donald Trump to let this pass through when we have all the leverage right now.”
The exchange grew more tense as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., jumped in, challenging Booker’s approach. She argued that once a bill clears committee, it shouldn’t be blocked on the floor while other funding priorities move forward. Booker pushed back, insisting the police bills were deeply important to his constituents and shouldn’t be dismissed as less critical.
“What I am tired of is when the president of the United States of America violates the Constitution, trashes our norms and traditions, and what does the Democratic Party do?” he said passionately. “Comply? Allow him? Beg for scraps?”
Booker warned, “The Democratic Party needs a wake-up call.”
Democrats remain divided on how best to push back against Trump and counter the influence of MAGA populism, especially in the wake of the party’s defeat in the 2024 election. Progressive lawmakers like Booker have urged stronger, more vocal resistance to the Trump administration.
“If we don’t stand as Democrats, we deserve to lose,” Booker said. “But if we stand united, if we stand strong, if we stand with other people, if we tell, with a chorus of conviction, that ‘America, what this president is doing is wrong’—if we stand up and speak that way—dear God, we will win.”
This is not the first time Booker has taken to the Senate floor to deliver a pointed rebuke. In April, he gave a 25-hour-and-five-minute speech denouncing the Trump administration’s policies, declaring: “These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such.”
