Hill.TV host Saagar Enjeti knocked Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Tuesday after he led several of his fellow 2020 contenders on a petition urging the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to change its debate qualifications in order to keep minority candidates on the stage.
“Booker’s gaslighting on billionaire spending coupled with blaming structural racism for their failures is a disgusting and cynical canard meant to exploit real tensions in this country to extend his obviously failing presidential campaign,” Enjeti said.
“The American people and the Democratic electorate have said their say on Cory Booker, and they don’t like what they see,” he added.
In the letter, Booker asked the DNC to “consider alternative debate qualification standards” for four primary debates scheduled in January and February. He argued that the escalated thresholds have “unnecessarily and artificially narrowed what started as the strongest and most diverse Democratic field in history.”
He was joined by former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, businessman Tom Steyer, entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in signing the petition.
Booker has struggled to gain traction in the polls, currently clocking in at 2.8 percent, according the RealClearPolitics national polling average.
He — as well as Castro, the only Latino in the race — failed to qualify for Thursday’s Democratic debate in Los Angeles. In order to qualify for the December debate, candidates had to garner support of at least 200,000 unique donors and register at least 4 percent support in four qualifying polls or at least 6 percent support in two approved early voting state polls.
—Tess Bonn
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