Sunday on MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said President Donald Trump was “responsible” for the mass shootings in America.
Booker said, ” I believe in my faith there’s a saying that you reap what you sow. And Donald Trump has been sowing this kind of hatred in our country when he talks about invasions and infestations and shit-hole countries when he tells people to go back, he is responsible and sowing these kinds of divisions to hate mongers, in fact failing to even condemn them where we saw in Charlottesville where he talks about there being good people on both sides. And so I believe this president is responsible. In fact, I believe presidents should take responsibility, and his words have been fueling white supremacy and giving license to them, and we’re seeing the horrific results of hatred today. I also want to say he’s responsible to do something substantive about this problem in terms of not just his rhetoric but the actions he’s supporting. He’s done nothing to keep these weapons of mass destruction out of people who want to do horrific harm, and that, too, is responsibility that lies at his feet.”
He added, “The president has been a moral failure. He has sown the seeds we are seeing now become this harvest of hate. He is responsible. He is a problem in this nation that is driving so much of this hatred. And if we can’t just clearly say that, I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat, when the president of the United States is using that kind of hateful language, if you are silent in that, you are complicit of the problem. If you don’t think, have a prognosis demonize people, calling them invaders, calling people infestation, if you cannot see that that rhetoric is contributing to the violence and hate in our country, then you are unfit to serve. This is a moral moment in America. It’s not about party. This is about moral clarity. And it is time for us to call it like it is. This president is contributing to a climate of hate in our country, which we see, unfortunately, being punctuated by hateful violence and he has to take responsibility for that. If not, we must remove him from that office.”
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