If you questioned the sincerity of Cory Booker’s attacks on Joe Biden, you should trust your instincts more often.
The junior Democratic senator from New Jersey does not care one bit whether the former vice president has a storied history of working civilly with racist U.S. lawmakers. Booker’s only goal in attacking Biden is to take the 2020 Democratic front-runner down a peg.
The senator proved that this weekend when he said he would not rule out meeting with famed anti-Semite and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
“I live in Newark, so we have famous Mosque 25, we have Nation of Islam there,” Booker said at a campaign event in Nevada. “As mayor, I met with lots of folks talking to him. I have heard Minister Farrakhan’s speeches for a lot of my life, so I don’t feel like I need to do that, but I’m not one of these people that says I wouldn’t sit down with anybody to hear what they have to say.”
He added, “But, I live in a neighborhood where I’m getting guys on the streets offering and selling his works. I am very familiar with Minister Louis Farrakhan and his beliefs and his values.”
Booker’s comments this weekend came in response to an audience member asking specifically whether he would avoid taking a meeting with Farrakhan on account of his well-known history of anti-Semitism. Just so we are all on the same page: The same senator who said this weekend that he would not rule out meeting with Farrakhan, despite knowing of Farrakhan’s legendary anti-Semitism, spent much of last week attacking Biden for claiming to have found common, civil ground with even unrepentant bigots in the Senate.
Booker scored plenty of soft media coverage last week when he said Biden’s anecdotes about working with notorious segregationist Dixiecrats Sens. James Eastland and Herman Talmadge were “hurtful.” Booker even called on the former vice president to seek forgiveness, saying he was disappointed that Biden had not “issued an immediate apology for the pain his words are dredging up for many Americans.”
It was the best media exposure for the Booker campaign since he announced his candidacy.
Later, Booker told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, “I think that Joe Biden should explain to people because it’s not about me. I don’t feel like I want an apology to me. I think that this is something he should speak to the public about, and I think he has an opportunity here.”
“I understand where his intentions were and his heart was. It’s not about me or him. He said things that are hurtful and harmful, and I believe he should be apologizing to the American people,” the senator added.
Everything Booker said last week about Biden can be applied to Booker flirting with the idea of meeting with a man he knows to be a massive anti-Semite.
This is about as shameless as one can get.
Booker’s campaign is stuck in seventh position in the 2020 Democratic primary, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. It was obvious last week that his attacks on Biden were not about “hurtful” language or retrograde ideas on racial reconciliation. It was obvious Booker was gunning for some badly needed media buzz.
This weekend, after he mused about doing exactly what Biden talked about, Booker proved his criticisms never amounted to more than politics.
