Cory Booker: Republicans Privately Tell Me Trump’s Divisive, Bigoted Rhetoric ‘Is Wrong’

Monday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) claimed Republicans pulled him aside to tell him they do not agree with President Donald Trump’s portrayal of immigrants.

Partial transcript as follows:

MITCHELL: I wanted to ask you to respond to the president’s rhetoric about immigrants. He, first of all, has been falsely accusing them of being all criminal elements, and emphasizing whatever cherry picking of statistics to say that they are responsible for so much criminal violence, which is not the case statistically. But referring to them as infecting America, what is the impact of that?

BOOKER: So in the federal courthouse I just came out of, I had people pulled me aside and said they were Republicans and said they think what is going on is wrong. That the way the president is portraying this border community is wrong and is insulting. The knowledge from everything that the wall is not necessary, all the way to saying—again, these are Republicans that pulled me aside having this conversation with me—saying this is not who we are, that crime is going down in these communities. And so the divisive rhetoric, the bigoted rhetoric, not to Mexicans or Americans, but to human dignity, is not contributing to this situation, not in any way helping us be a country.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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