Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker lost his temper at Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during a heated exchange at a Tuesday Senate Judiciary Committee.
Under former President Joe Biden’s administration, protesters demonstrated outside the homes of Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and John Roberts. During the hearing, Cruz repeatedly interrupted Booker to ask whether Biden’s Justice Department arrested any protesters — prompting the Democrat to raise his voice.
WATCH:
“I really appreciate that you’ve now shifted the accusation you made earlier. Your accusation was that we were silent in the face of protests at Supreme Court justices’ homes,” Booker said. “Again, we joined together in a bipartisan way, not only to condemn that, but to pass legislation to extend round-the-clock security protection — literally days — it was introduced May 5th, passed the Senate in a bipartisan fashion on May 9th. So if you’re saying that we didn’t criticize [former Attorney General] Merrick Garland —”
Cruz interrupted to ask whether Biden’s Justice Department arrested “a single person” under a law prohibiting such protests.
“Sir, you are now changing the accusation,” Booker responded. Cruz asserted he was maintaining his same argument and interrupted Booker again to ask the same question when the Democratic senator said he would “pull the record.”
Cruz asked the same question once more and interrupted Booker again. “The answer is no,” Cruz said.
“My point to you is the accusation that the Democrats on this committee do not care about the safety of federal judges —” Booker said before Cruz attempted to interrupt him again.
“I did not interrupt you, sir. I would appreciate if you let me finish!” Booker exclaimed, his face contorted in rage. “I am sick and tired of hearing the kind of heated partisan rhetoric, which is one of the reasons why we have such divisions in this country. The attacks we see from the President of the United States of America trolling and dragging judges through is what we should be talking about that puts people in danger.”
“I’m simply taking issue with the claim that you made at the top, that people on the Democratic side of the aisle do not care about the safety and the security of judges and said nothing,” he continued. “You said we were silent after people’s houses were protested. That is a patent lie, sir. We were not silent. We took action.”
Cruz said it was ironic that Booker lost his temper while denouncing “heated partisan rhetoric.”
“I do enjoy the fact that my colleague from New Jersey raises his voice and says it’s a patent lie and says he’s doing so in defense of lowering the rhetoric,” he said. “There is some irony to doing those two together.”
One person was arrested for plotting to assassinate Kavanaugh, but there were no prosecutions of demonstrators under Garland’s tenure as of 2023, National Review reported.
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