Booker: GOP Senator Told Me Qualified Immunity ‘on the Table’ in Police Reform Bill

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said that Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) told him the Senate’s policing reform proposals will address the doctrine of qualified immunity for police officers.

Partial transcript as follows:

BRENNAN: Well, I want to ask you- I want to ask you about this moment, because, I mean, it’s an election year and emotions are already supercharged. The president this morning sent a tweet quoting Michael Moore, a filmmaker, said “Democrats shouldn’t underestimate white male Trump supporters’ rage and emotion.” You heard my exchange with Senator Scott about whether it is ignorance or deliberateness to plan a rally around Juneteenth. Do you believe that you can come to a compromise with this administration on this issue?

BOOKER: Well, this is what I know. I know the heart of Tim Scott and senators like Senator Braun, who said to me he’s- qualified immunity is on the table. We- we are one body of the United States Senate. And- and people of good heart and good spirit, regardless of what the president does. He can veto a bill, but we should come forward in this moment in history, which will be judged. We should put our best face- best faith efforts forward to put a bill–

BRENNAN: Yeah.

BOOKER: –intact that will stop the kind of awful violence and- and killing of unarmed people that we see in our country. We can do that. We know what works.

BRENNAN: OK.

BOOKER: And we know that half measures have not worked in the past from Ferguson to Minneapolis. We know what will work.

BRENNAN: Well–

BOOKER: This is not a radical bill, but we can get this done.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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