Thursday on MSNBC’s “Live,” 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) reacted to a New York Times report that President Donald Trump told staff whoever gave the “whistleblower” information was “close to a spy.”
Booker said, “Well, it is not surprising that Donald Trump doesn’t know the difference between patriotism and treason. If there is any treasonous actions here, it is coming from the White House, as being indicated by what we’re discovering. So here again, Donald Trump sounding more like a threatening thug than a statesman. And his rhetoric, you know, he gives license to people to do dangerous things. From his failure to condemn white supremacists to even the way that he talks about what is patriotic duty. And so right now, we have a courageous individual who basically wasn’t served right by the director of national intelligence, who did wrong by the law and should have gone right to Congress, but now we have implications of a betrayal of one’s office. And so this is weighty stuff, and this ruthless recklessness of this president is what has gotten him into this situation in the first place and it is time that the country puts aside partisanship and begins to do what will be a very historic, potentially nation-changing investigation that must go forward.”
He added, “I’ve been to Ukraine. I’ve gone to Eastern Ukraine. The region that is under attack. I met with military soldiers, seen their vulnerability, have them talk to me about colleagues that have been lost to Russian aggression, saw how desperate they were for American support and aid. It was a difference between life and death for them. And we as Congress, in a bipartisan fashion, approved that aid and now we’re realizing that this president was withholding that aid not for national security purposes, but to pursue his own personal benefit. That is outrageous, and in my opinion, that is treasonous.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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