Republican senators have been left baffled and frustrated by Sen. Cory Booker’s unprecedented plans to testify against Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a fellow sitting senator who’s in line to be the next U.S. attorney general under President-elect Trump.
Booker, D-N.J., is set to oppose Sessions in a Wednesday hearing, and while Republicans are allowing him to speak, it’s clear they’re not happy about it.
“I like Cory Booker. I like Jeff Sessions,” Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters Tuesday. “I don’t know what drives him to do this. I’ll listen to what he’s got to say, but I’ve known Jeff for 15 years — a lot longer than I’ve known Cory Booker. I don’t think [his testimony will] matter much to me. I wouldn’t do it, but it’s okay, I guess. There’s no rule saying that you can’t.”
“Well, I like Cory Booker, and I think it’s unusual. Very unique,” said Sen. Tim Scott, one of only three black senators. “I think we’ll know what this means 20 years looking back. Everyone deserves the right to be heard and to speak his piece … Cory’s doing his homework as well. I respect who he is and I like him as a person. We’ll see what happens.”
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Democrats are wary of Sessions’ support for civil rights, but Scott noted that Booker praised Sessions less than a year ago, when Booker said in a speech that he was “honored” to work with him on legislation that awarded the 1965 Voting Rights Foot Soldiers the Congressional Gold Medal.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley was mum about Booker’s planned testimony, and simply told reporters that each senator “has to make up their own mind what they’re going to do.”
But not all Republicans are noting their opposition so politely. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called the move “disgraceful” in a statement, and said Booker was using the hearing as a “platform for his presidential aspirations.”
“I’m very disappointed that Sen. Booker has chosen to start his 2020 presidential campaign by testifying against Sen. Sessions,” Cotton said. “This hearing simply offers a platform for his presidential aspirations. Sen. Booker is better than that, and he knows better.”
Along with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and possibly Vice President Joe Biden, Booker is viewed at as a potential frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in four years, provoking speculation about the motive behind his testimony. Booker pushed back on that chatter Tuesday, telling the Washington Examiner Tuesday that his reasoning has nothing to do with aspirations for higher office or a potential 2020 bid against Trump, adding that it’s only about “the issues.”
In a Monday interview, he argued that Sessions’ “posture and positioning” on certain issues, including civil rights and policing, make him a “real danger.”
Senate Democrats also came to Booker’s side, arguing that he is well within his right to make his case against Sessions at Wednesday’s hearing despite the lack of precedent.
“We’ll have to see,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said when asked about expectations for Wednesday. “Every senator makes their own judgment about what issues move them and what issues brought them to the Senate … I think every senator has the right to decide in what way they’re going to express their concerns on how they are going to question, speak about or oppose it.”
