A top Republican called on Sen. Cory Booker to “get a grip” after the New Jersey Democrat told an audience Friday that he cried “tears of rage” over President Trump’s rhetoric.
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, rebuked his colleague on Twitter after Booker told a crowd at the annual progressive Netroots Nation gathering in New Orleans that some things are “savagely wrong in this country.”
{mosads}“I’m a big believer that if America, if this country hasn’t broken your heart, then you don’t love her enough,” Booker said. “Because there’s things that are savagely wrong in this country. There’s a normalcy of injustice that we’ve accepted.”
Booker did not mention specific policies from the Trump administration or conditions he found appalling, but told the crowd about his time as mayor of Newark, N.J., saying it had given him a “sense of purpose.”
“And I tell you, Newark has gifted me a wisdom that can only come from moons, a sense of purpose that can only come from shared pain,” Booker said. “It’s a city that at times where my heart has been broken but I’ve learned that the heart is this interesting organ that, it’s the only one that really works even if it’s gotten broken.”
Booker was one of several Democrats to speak at the annual convention this week, joining Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who are all viewed as potential Democratic presidential contenders for 2020.
Also speaking at the conference this week was New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, who is running in the state’s Democratic primary against Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), as well as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who defeated longtime New York Rep. Joseph Crowley (D) in a primary earlier this summer.