Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that President Donald Trump was “violating the fundamental rights of people in order to punish them.”
Partial transcript as follows:
STEPHANOPOULOS: You saw Jon Karl’s piece about the president’s retribution campaign, he promised to be the retribution during the campaign. We’re seeing these moves against universities. We’re seeing these moves against law firms. You took the Senate floor to protest. What should these law firms and universities do?
BOOKER: Well, first and foremost, you’re calling retribution, but it’s something far worse than that. If you look around the world, from Viktor Orban, to Vladimir Putin, this is not what democratic leaders do. This is really a violation of our constitutional principles, that he’s using that power of that office, not to advance noble causes that could help the American people, whether I disagree with them or not, that’s what a president is called to do, do what they think is in the best interests of the public at large. What this president is instead doing is violating our constitutional principles, violating the fundamental rights of people in order to punish them, to carry out his own retribution plan.
You know, John F. Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Donald Trump is now saying, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for Donald Trump to make amends. He is trying to hurt people, to make them cower to him and offer him tribute in order to not violate the Constitution and hurt them economically. This is something that should not just be about a bunch of law firms. This is something that should ultimately be about Americans.
And every American right now should be sitting back – I don’t care if you’re a Republican, Democrat or independent, and should ask yourself, when is it enough? When has he crossed my line when it comes to my love of this country? Is it bad enough that he’s putting on the biggest tax on Americans that I’ve ever seen through these tariffs, which are taxes on Americans? Is that enough? Is it enough when he’s threatening the health care of tens of millions of Americans, disabled children or elders? Is that enough? Is that crossing my line? Or will it pay for his tax cuts?
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