Cory Booker speaks on rise in gun violence and white nationalism
2020 contender and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is giving what his campaign billed as a major speech on gun violence and the rise of white nationalism in America in the wake of two devastating mass shootings this past weekend. Booker will be speaking at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina — the site where nine black parishioners were gunned down by a white supremacist in 2015.
Booker is one of several Democratic presidential candidates who have spoken out against legislative inaction on gun reforms amid the recent spate of mass shootings. The Democrat released his own plan to curb gun violence back in May which includes the use of executive action to close gun sales loopholes and investing in communities affected by gun violence.
In excerpts of prepared remarks, Booker suggested that the apparent racist-driven attacks in Texas were rooted deep in American society.
"The act of anti-Latino and anti-immigrant hatred we witnessed this weekend did not start with the hand that pulled the trigger. It did not begin when a single white supremacist got into his car to travel ten hours to kill as many human beings as he could. They were planted in fertile soil, because the contradictions that have shadowed this country since its founding remains a part of who we are," Booker is slated to say.