Cory Booker: Trump Using ‘Bigotry as a Weapon’ Like George Wallace

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “All In,” 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said President Donald Trump is using “bigotry as a weapon,” like segregationist former Alabama Governor George Wallace once did.

Booker said, “It’s despicable in the sense of what he’s trying to do. We know he is doing it now when power dynamic has shifted. The things he has been saying to Ilhan Omar, he’s been outrageous lies about Muslims, remember he said thousands of people in Jersey City cheered the World Trade Center. That was a lie to try to bolster his political power, using race, racism, bigotry as a weapon. He is preying upon fears and bigotry to propel himself forward.”

He continued, “He is in the most powerful position in the land and this kind of politics we have seen before. We had a political party called the Know Nothings using the same rhetoric. Then they were against Irish and German immigrants. My parents, my mom watched in black and white on TV with George Wallace with accusations of communism and the same bigotry and hate. My mom watched it in black and white and now millions saw it in full color. I know there are a lot of policy issues to discuss, but this is an issue of values and it’s a referendum on our country and who we are and who we are going to be to each other. This is a choice we have to make in this country. Are we going to find common ground and common cause or allow someone to rip us apart using the knife of racism to cut at the fabric of this country.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN