Sen. Booker To President-Elect Trump: 'Stay Off' Twitter
During the latest WCBS Conversation with Steve Scott, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, D-NJ, shares his thoughts on the reports of Russia meddling in the U.S. election and has some social media advice for President-elect Donald Trump.
Check out some excerpts and be sure to watch the full interview above.
Do you agree with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's decision to have a Senate intelligence panel investigate Russia's alleged meddling in the presidential election?
"I'd like to see it taken to another level, this is an unbelievable reality where you have another nation state trying to undermine what is a sacrosanct element of any democracy -- the electoral process. I think you're hearing leaders on both sides of the aisle not making this partisan, from John McCain to Chuck Schumer, saying we should take this to another level. So I'd like to see a special select committee, but either way we need to move with a sense of urgency to getting to the bottom of exactly what happened."
Do you think Russia played any role in the outcome of the presidential election?
"I don't know... I know this is not beyond what I think the Russians are capable of, whether they made a difference in the outcome, I don't think we should be necessarily focusing on that right now. I think we should get to the bottom of what the facts are and go where the facts lead us. I don't think this should be approached from a way to attack Donald Trump, or what have you, I think it should be a way to go about what is the role that they played, what was the extent of the hacking, and then ultimately answer the question, did it have an impact?"
Do you have hope for a bipartisan, non-attack type of investigation?
"This is a point of pride, we are Americans, and to think that the Russians are coming to our nation and trying to undermine our democracy should get every American upset. Leave partisan politics aside. I have very strong emotions and feelings about the outcome of the election but this to me goes to the core I think of all of us as Americans about what we stand for and what we should not tolerate from any foreign government."
Republicans will control the Senate, the House and the White House. Are there issues of common ground where you can work with the Republican majority?
"With Senate Republicans I've got great working relationships, many of them that I value and consider friends. Trump is a whole different story for me. I'm already gearing up for the fight. When he wants to put people in place like Jeff Sessions as the attorney general of the United States of America, one of the few outliers even amongst Republicans in the Senate that's been blocking criminal justice reform that will try to unwind a lot of the progress under the Obama administration I'm ready to fight. When he puts people in other offices, be it the Secretary of Labor recommendation -- somebody who's against raising minimum wage, that is against unions -- I'm ready to fight. We're going to come out of the blocks. While I'm looking forward to partnering with my Republican colleagues, as we have been for the last two years, when it comes to the person that's the President of the United States of America right now the first thing I'm doing is rolling up my sleeves and getting ready to fight against people I think are going to undermine this country's best interests."
Trump communicates a lot via Twitter, and you have used Twitter to engage your constituents in New Jersey. As a veteran on Twitter, what advice would you give the president elect?
"Advice for him would be probably to stay off because he's something that we call in the Twitter universe a 'troll.' He spews a lot of toxin and insults towards people. I mean, he can't even help himself from criticizing 'Saturday Night Live.' What I try to do on Twitter is number one, I tell everybody to be authentic, be who you are. But also to be positive, and show grace and kindness. There's enough toxicity out there. So I'm disappointed with the way he uses the platform. It is a powerful tool, it's a tool of the future in terms of communication in a fractured media environment. But I do believe that the energy you put out into the universe regardless of who you are is really important. There's enough people out there that are trying to demean and degrade folks in social media context. I like it when people try to elevate folks, elevate the dialogue to show a level of civility. For those of us that are positions of authority, we have to set the standard for this country, and we have a president right now that's not setting a standard. I think his dialogue is enabling a lot people who are the trolls, enabling other people preaching hate out there. Instead of leading us to a higher unifying level. I think he's leading us into the gutter."
Is fake news here to stay?
"I think we're going through this painful period of uncertainty and I think what's going to emerge on the other end of this is that America is going to start to realize and craze for authentic trusted brands that are going to start to see a resurgence on the other end of this tumultuous time."