U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) was in St. Louis on Sunday, March 13 to help kick-off the St. Louis phone bank for the Hillary Clinton campaign in Missouri. He is that state’s first African American U.S. senator and the former mayor of Newark, New Jersey. The St. Louis American asked Senator Booker why he – and, in fact, every Democrat senator – endorsed Clinton over U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in the primary. The state’s presidential preference primary is Tuesday, March 15, and absentee voting is already underway.
The St. Louis American: You’ve worked with both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Why were you at the phone bank kick off for Clinton over Sanders?
U.S. Senator Cory Booker: This is probably not even a decision. It was just such a clear and obvious thing to do. On the issues that matter when I was a mayor working on urban issues, issues facing communities struggling with high violence, with high unemployment, with many people who are playing by the rules that are struggling to get ahead, but yet aren’t, she’s clearly the best candidate for them, for those communities. She has a better plan, and frankly she has the grit and the toughness to implement these things.
What other candidate, what other elected leader, has taken as many hits as she has in the time that she was first lady of Arkansas, first lady of America, to senator, even what we’ve seen her go through with Benghazi. She’s a person that has taken on fire every time she’s gone, and still yet rises to greater and greater levels of service. So she’s got what it takes.
This wasn’t a hard choice at all, and that’s why I’m running around the country, in fact, doing whatever I can to support her candidacy.
The St. Louis American: In our endorsement of Clinton, we argued that she is a better insider player than Sanders, and any victories in a Democrat presidency next term are likely to be inside fights for incremental change. Do you agree with this assessment?
U.S. Senator Cory Booker: I’ve been in the Senate now for two years. There is no way to make change in Washington now unless you can find ways to work with the other side.
And you may want to call it “incremental change,” but if you can get the minimum wage raised a dollar or two, that’s a pretty significant change for a family. You might call it “incremental change,” but if you are able to expand Social Security for the poor, you pull people out of poverty. It might be incremental change, but if you are able to raise the earned income tax credit or expand the housing tax credit, you make big changes.
So when it comes to struggling communities, the kind of changes that she can make are practical and may seem like incremental, but they make a big difference to those communities that are struggling to get into the middle class.
The St. Louis American: You’ve worked with both of them. What makes you, by comparison, believe that Hillary Clinton is better at that kind of change and working with the other side better than Bernie Sanders?
U.S. Senator Cory Booker: Well, look at the Senate. I mean, there is not one of Bernie Sanders’ colleagues that’s endorsing him – and this goes from the very, very liberal left people like Sherrod Brown or Al Franken even to the moderate ones. She has a chorus of conviction behind her from the United States Senate, a consensus virtually of people who are supporting her. Because we all know. We all love Bernie, I think there is genuinely respect to love from every one of his colleagues, but it’s just not even a thought. When I talk to my colleagues who’ve endorsed her, we all know that it’s just clearly obvious she’s the most presidential, ready to serve, qualified, experienced and frankly has the grit and resilience to fight in Washington, to make changes for those people who are too often left out in our Democracy.
The St. Louis American: As you know, many younger African-American voters who were energized by Ferguson and similar events hold Clinton responsible for the crime bill that Bill Clinton signed and its role in fostering mass incarceration. Is this fair?
U.S. Senator Cory Booker: I can easily say in the United States Senate there is not someone fighting more than I am against mass incarceration and to reform our criminal justice system. As a guy who came from a city, I knew the urgency of this, and it’s been one center of my legislative agendas since I got to Washington. And I think it’s kind of silly for people to try and create politics now about what happened 20-plus years ago. There is actually one candidate in this race who voted for the crime bill, and that’s Bernie Sanders. And so I know that Hillary Clinton – and, more specifically, Bill Clinton – actually apologized for supporting that bill. Bernie hasn’t apologized yet, and that’s really unfortunate in my opinion.
The St. Louis American: What do you think she’s going to do to deal with the lingering effects of that policy?
U.S. Senator Cory Booker: Remember when she started her campaign, with her opening statement of this 2016 presidential race, her first policy speech of the campaign was about mass incarceration where she put forth a very detailed, good plan, things I support. In fact, she reached out and talked to my policy team, her team did, before they went with that policy speech. My point is she has the plan and she understands what needs to be done, and she’s determined to get it done.
So I have no qualms about looking at Black Lives Matter movement folks and saying, “Look, the person that’s going to most get this done and has the best ability to get things done is Hillary Clinton.”
And let me add one more thing to you. If Hillary Clinton wins this primary and wins the presidency, it’s clearly going to be because of African-American votes. That is clear. And there is a loyalty that the Clinton have to people helped who get them over. So I know that she is committed to it philosophically, morally, spiritually – but politically, she is also very, very committed to those issues.
The state’s presidential preference primary is Tuesday, March 15, and absentee voting is already underway.
