Friday on ABC’s “The View,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) accused President Donald Trump of being “repulsively ridiculous” in his tweets and demeanor, which the New Jersey senator claimed is turning the country into a “perverse Hunger Games.”
Booker said, “We need to listen to medical professionals. Listen to the scientists. We have a CDC for a reason. And to ignore the common sense things that they’re saying that even — I have talked to people in the private sector who are abiding by so many of those rules and concern that if we open too early like we did back in 1918, the second wave was worse than the first which cost your economy even more. We have got to do this right. What really frustrates me is that I hear people using militaristic terms. This is a war. I’ve heard people say that. If that’s the case, what we should be doing is not having this kind of perverse Hunger Games where you have literally governors competing against each other for the critical resources they need. We didn’t do that in World War II. We had a national mobilization to meet the threat to our nation. ”
He continued, “This is a president who is trying to say, this is still like the articles of Confederation, all the states are on their own. No. We’re the United States of America. This president should be stepping up, using the Defense Production Act, and more to make sure that we are producing the materials we need to get out of this. Everybody knows we need testing, contact tracing, to make sure that we are apportioning it correctly, making sure we are actually having supply chains that serve the purpose of this country which should be, yes, to get back to business, but first and foremost, to protect human life.”
He added, “This is a failure of leadership. It’s a shame because I’ve seen 9/11, Hurricane Sandy —I don’t care Republican or Democrat, Chris Christie rose to the challenge, even Giuliani who was at dead approval ratings in New York, during that challenge at least he could rise up to the call to the patriotism of this nation. Our president now is demeaning, degrading, divisive, insulting people, calling out governors, tweeting out the most repulsively ridiculous things about liberating states when we want to keep human lives safe. He seems to want to try to trigger partisan animosity to better help his re-election. We need leadership on the national level, and I’m frustrated how this president is not rising to this occasion, one of the few world leaders whose approval rating is actually going down.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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