WATCH: Sen. Cory Booker criticizes handling of Emil Bove's judicial confirmation hearing, walk out

So what we just saw in that committee hearing has never ever happened before. Senators have a right to debate a controversial nominee even if the die is already cast, even if my colleagues on the Republican side don't want to listen to any of the legitimate whistleblowing claims that have come out. What we just saw is something that I've just never witnessed. They cut off debate. This is the world's most deliberative body and we can't even debate a controversial judge, a judge that has been accused by a whistleblower of lying to the United States Senate, to lying to this committee. And so this is just a frustrating day and this is what I think is going on right here, is Donald Trump has the Republican Party in the Senate in its thrall. That we have seen Republican senators time and time again laying down before their dear leader, doing whatever he wants, even undermining the traditions of the United States Senate and the rules of this committee. This is a Republican Party now under the thrall of Donald Trump and it is actually undermining our Constitution because we are supposed to give check and balance to the administration. We're supposed to give congressional oversight. We're supposed to, when it comes to nominations, we're supposed to vet them and advise and consent. And so our country is slipping right now. It is slipping. When the President of the United States undermines orders from the federal court, when the President of the United States singles out judges and thrashes them in ways that see threats on those judges spike up, when the President of the United States is not abiding by the checks and balances of the legislative branch, we are tilting towards authoritarianism with the complicity of Senate Republicans. And so this is not normal times. There's nothing about this that's normal. We are in a state of crisis in our country. As this President continues to do things that undermines our basic rights, First Amendment rights, due process rights, the checks and balances that are clearly spelled out by the founders of our democracy are now being undermined. We are in a dangerous time in America, and we should not be treating what happened today or what this President is doing as normal. So just to clarify, so you and your fellow Democratic senators walked out before you voted on any of the nominations? Let's clarify this. There's rules of this committee that say that before a nomination, senators have their right to debate and discuss this issue. They cut off those rules. They silenced the minority in the Senate. It's staggering. I asked one of our senior staffers here, has this ever happened? It's happened two times before in the last four years when the two-hour rule was about to be triggered and the committee was about to be dismissed. In that case, the majority being the Democrats pushed the vote. There's been no two-hour rule. This is the preemptive cutting off of debate because they didn't want to hear the truth. They didn't want to hear the truth about a nominee that's one of the most controversial people ever to be nominated for the third circuit court. They didn't want to hear from the whistleblower who has credible evidence that impinges their testimony and could actually even show possibly that he perjured himself before this committee. They don't want to hear the evidence or the facts, and they did something that was so unprecedented. To me, it undermines the very institution of which we're all a part. Okay? Thank you, sir.