Presidential candidate Cory Booker calls Trump's 9/11 tweet "vicious, crass, disgusting"
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, accused President Trump of "moral vandalism" for his verbal attacks on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, and told CBS News that she "does not deserve the kind of vicious, hate filled attacks that she's experiencing." He made the remarks in an interview with "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan on Saturday.
Booker said the President's tweet on Friday of a clip splicing video of the burning Twin Towers on 9/11 with a partial quote from Omar was "vicious, crass, disgusting." He noted that friends of his had died in those attacks.
"That is so objectionable. That is so offensive. And- and- and this is what I mean about moral vandalism in our country that's going on from the highest offices stoking hatred, stoking fears, pitting people against each other."
When pressed by Brennan as to whether he was also offended by how the Congresswoman referred to the 9/11 terrorist attacks during a speech last month, in which she obliquely referenced them as "some people who did some thing," Booker deflected. Instead he said, "What she is experiencing right now, she does not deserve -- from what she said in her speech -- she does not deserve the kind of vicious, hate-filled attacks that she's experiencing."
He went on to mention the threats on her life. A New York man was arrested last week for reportedly calling her office, asking if she worked for the Muslim Brotherhood, and then threatening to "put a bullet in her (expletive) skull."
"We all as Americans should say that's outrageous and unacceptable and what Donald Trump is doing, he's making life dangerous not just for her but for other Muslim Americans."
Brennan asked Booker if he was suggesting Mr. Trump was inciting violence. His response was emphatic: "What I know is this: Since 9/11, we've had terrorist attacks in this country," Booker said. "The majority of them have been right-wing extremists and the majority of those have been white supremacist attacks. From a synagogue in Pittsburgh to a church in South Carolina. And these are white supremacist groups that use language — as we saw it, as far away as New Zealand — use our president's language almost as if it is a license for these attacks."
