A Country in Crisis Cory Booker REFUSES to attend Trump s State of the Union

Let's bring in New Jersey Democratic U.S. Senator Cory Booker. Senator Booker, it's really nice to see you tonight. Thanks for making time to be here with us. Thank you for having me. We've been talking about the fact that a number of your Democratic colleagues have decided not to attend the President's State of the Union address tonight, boycotting it altogether or attending some other counter-programming event. I know you do plan to be in attendance at the address tonight. Can you tell us a little bit about your thinking behind why you're doing that? No, absolutely not. I'm not going to be there, and I'm not going to be there because this is a president who has really put our country into crisis. He is going to have a mockery of a State of the Union speech at a time that he is violating the laws of our land. He's violating people's civil rights and their security in their neighborhoods with his ICE army running into our communities, arresting people. He's violating the Constitution by weaponizing the Justice Department and literally going after everybody from the Fed chair to members of Congress. This is a man who's grifted off of our office in ways in violation of the Emoluments Clause and the Constitution, making over $100 billion, given four years, who will make a half a trillion dollars after grifting off of his office. So I'm not going to dignify him with some kind of deference to an institution that he has already violated through his actions. I apologize for having misunderstood your intentions tonight, Senator. It's good to understand what you're thinking behind not attending. One of the things that Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been, I think, sort of wrestling with is, I think, what he expects to be the instincts of some Democrats who do attend, that they may want to protest in some way. They may want to make themselves heard. They may want to heckle or otherwise object to the president in a visible or audible way. What's your thinking about the sort of strategy behind that, how that lands, and what else Democrats can do tonight to make the kind of points that you just made about the president? Well, look, I think that our Capitol is a sacred civic space. I think the White House and the Oval Office are a sacred civic space. But this is a president who has demeaned and degraded those spaces using his platforms that the United States people gave him to do the most crass and craven things. Remember, this is a guy who just days ago was using memes, racist memes, for the first lady, former first lady, and the president. So I think that as he stands in that spot and directly attacks members, directly attacks potentially Supreme Court justices in the most outrageous of ways, I'm not going to dictate to people how they should act when that happens. I, for one, just choose not to be there, not to dignify him or, frankly, give any legitimacy to not the lie that he's going to tell the American people, not the lies. We know from his last year's speech, there will be dozens and dozens of outrageous lies trying to justify the most outrageous of constitutional violations that he has conducted over this last year. Senator, New Jersey is home to a couple of prison camps, the Elizabeth Detention Center, Delaney Hall in Newark. We know Roxbury, New Jersey, has been told sort of against the will of that town and its residents and its officials that they are going to get one of these giant new Trump prison camps. We have seen the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, the Trump administration, reverse itself on a number of those calls recently. Just tonight, Merrimack, New Hampshire, and a town in Tennessee have been told that the decision has been reversed and they're not getting one of those prison camps. We've seen reversals in Chester, New York in recent days, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, Hutchins, Texas, Kansas City, Missouri. In all of those places, the local pushback appears to have succeeded in changing the Trump administration's plans to put a prison camp there. What can you tell us about Roxbury, about the planned Trump prison camp there, the local objections to it, and what the prospects are for reversing that decision? Yeah, I've been to Roxbury. I've visited the facility that they are acquiring. This is a town that happens to be led by Republicans that have said unequivocally with a unified voice, do not come here. You are going to undermine our town's well-being. You're going to strain our resources. Do not come here. So there is local pushback. There is statewide pushback. We already are having what I consider illegitimate, for-profit, private institutions, like the one you mentioned that's in the city in which I live, that to me is a moral abomination that they're using facilities like this to warehouse human beings and make millions, in fact, tens of millions of dollars of profit for this private company. So we're going to do everything we can to stop them from building this facility. It is wrong. It is offensive. And I'm hoping we have the same success as a lot of my Republican colleagues in the Senate have been having in stopping Donald Trump from building these in their states. Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, sir, thank you very much. And I appreciate you taking the time on State of the Union Night to be here. Thank you. No, no, I appreciate you. And one more thing, Rachel, like there was a federal judge that just demanded that the U.S. attorney in New Jersey give receipts for how many times they have violated federal court orders. It came back well over 50 times. And folks have got to understand that what this president is doing is violating all understanding of the rule of law in our country. And so in my state, violating judicial orders, violating the wills of local communities and violating the sanctity of our towns with their ice raids that have taken our children, disrupted our high schools and really violated the physical safety and security of individuals. And so we are at a point of extreme crisis. There should not be business as usual. And we should not treat tonight as just another State of the Union address. Our country is in crisis. The unpopularity of this president not only shows that, but it's a moment where we all should be pushing back. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, sir, thank you very much tonight. I really appreciate you being here.