Tuesday on CNN’s “Newsroom,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) reacted to the Supreme Court upholding President Donald Trump’s travel ban on several majority Muslim nations.
Booker said, “A religion-based travel ban, it makes no sense when you look at the countries in terms of security, it really was about our safety, it would be a different list, a different tailored lists. But, again, this stems from a person that started their campaign talking about Mexicans and Muslims and, in a way that just disappoints me. I’m just coming back from the border. I’m still emotionally raw with what I saw down there and, you know, we need to reclaim our values. I’m not saying it is not partisan values, it is not Democratic/Republican.”
He continued, “We’re a good nation, good people, and we should be setting a standard on this planet of what humanity should be about. And there is an ideal that you have to balance security, obviously, an ideal that runs through so many faiths, simply love thy neighbor. No exceptions after that. And, you know, we have darker chapters, we have some incredible chapters of light in which we have done that and opened ur our arms to people who are escaping tyranny and violence and famine. We are a stronger nation because of histories of Irish-Americans, Eastern European Americans, so many different blood lines in this country that have all performed the fabric of who we are. I feel like this president is assaulting that day after day with this rhetoric and with the policy actions.”
He added, “I disagree with the decision and the outcome. I think we cannot — we just cannot walk away from the fact of how this all started, which was a president that said he wanted to ban Muslims from our country. We are a nation had Muslims as part of our nation for entire history, great scientists, athletes, Muhammad Ali, some of our greatest heroes. And this is a person that wants to use something that our founders rejected, which is a religious test. And, again, there is a moral assault, moral vandalism going on. I saw it yesterday on our border, and I’m going to do everything I can to fight for our values. There are really, to me, some of the deepest things I love about my country.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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