Booker showcases pragmatic side in town hall

Cory Booker sought to distinguish himself from fellow Democratic White House hopefuls Wednesday, calling for more pragmatic solutions to progressive policy goals and embracing his position as the only African-American male running for president. At a CNN town hall, Booker only referenced two of his rivals by name — he mentioned a bill with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to lower prescription drug prices and joked that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) “talks a lot about me being a vegan, but when I go to her house she cooks some of the best vegan food I’ve had in D.C.” But the New Jersey senator drew contrasts with Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden, calling a crime bill they supported in the 1990s “horrible” as he touted bipartisan criminal justice legislation he helped pass last year. He noted that black and brown people are disproportionately impacted by policing around marijuana and likened getting arrested for possessing marijuana to “a lifetime sentence.” As president, he said, he would fight for “sane” drug laws and expunge the records of people with marijuana-related convictions. He also said he would “absolutely” consider mass pardons or commutations for federal marijuana offenses. And even as he embraced the Green New Deal as a “bold vision,” he lamented how candidates are talking about reparations, questioned how rivals who support free college could pay for such a plan and what pathway other candidates have to make sure all Americans have access to health care. He said he supports reparations for African-Americans who are descendants of slaves, pointing to his baby bond legislation, which would give newborns savings accounts worth tens of thousands of dollars by the time they’re 18 to address the racial wealth gap. But he said policies for free college worry him: “I wanna know how you’re gonna pay for that.” His own apprenticeship program would be funded by rolling back President Donald Trump’s “toxic” tax cuts, he said. “Can I tell you why I’m frustrated and disappointed by this reparation conversation? Because it’s being reduced to just a box to check on a presidential list when this is so much more of a serious conversation,” Booker told moderator Don Lemon at the CNN town hall in Orangeburg, S.C. Booker expressed support for Medicare for all. “But,“ he cautioned, “we have to show a pathway to get there through practical things that aren’t gonna make people’s situations worse but help it get better.“ His solution includes allowing drug imports from other countries and penalizing companies that raise their prices higher than they have them in other countries. He also proposed lowering Medicare eligibility to age 55. Booker didn’t directly address how he would deal with race relations as president compared to former President Barack Obama. But he said that as president he would build a Democratic machine that could compete at every level in every state. Under Obama, Democrats had a net loss of 968 state legislative seats. Booker said he believes the candidate who wins the national popular vote should be president but stressed that before that issue can be addressed, Democrats have to beat Trump through the Electoral College in November 2020. He refused to say whether Trump should be impeached, instead telling the crowd he wants to wait and see what’s in special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report. He criticized Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the report as the “Cliff Notes version.” “You are a Trump appointee,” he said of Barr. “I don’t need you to filter facts. I want to see it.” Booker has now visited South Carolina, an early primary state, four times since launching his campaign Feb. 1. The New Jersey Democrat will also deliver a commencement address at South Carolina State University, a historically black college, in May. He told the audience he’s the son of two HBCU grads and, when asked about gun-control policy, said he’s likely the only candidate who has had shootings on the block where he lives. He recalled Shahad Smith’s death by an assault rifle last year in his neighborhood. “This is very personal to so many of us,” he said of such shootings. “Me, because I’m a black man, and black males are 6 percent of the nation’s population, but they make up the majority of homicide victims in this country. I am tired of going to funerals where parents are burying their children. So I’m gonna bring a fight — we’re gonna bring a fight like the NRA has never seen.” South Carolina is a key state in Booker’s path to winning the Democratic nomination. He visited the nation’s first-in-the-South primary on Martin Luther King Jr. Day before launching his campaign. And his town hall there stands in contrast to Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), whose CNN town hall was held in Iowa. South Carolina Democrats say Biden, Harris and Booker are considered front-runners there, where roughly 60 percent of Democratic voters are African-American. At his town hall on Wednesday, Booker faced questions over his love and unity rhetoric, past support of charter schools and donations from pharmaceutical company executives. He told a black woman who asked him about Electoral College reform that “you are the best voting demographic in America.” “I’m here in Orangeburg, and one of the reasons why we chose to be here is because I’m gonna continue to go to places in this country like Newark, where people talk down to the communities,” he said, adding that the corridor off Interstate 95 is called the “corridor of shame.” “Well to me, I don’t see it that way. This is a corridor of opportunity.” Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine Source: https://ift.tt/2U2tMJd Droolin’ Dog sniffed out this story and shared it with you. The Article Was Written/Published By: nmccaskill@politico.com (Nolan D. McCaskill) ! #Headlines, #Democrats, #Election2020, #Political, #Politico, #politics, #Trending, #Newsfeed, #syndicated, news https://ift.tt/2TCm5Vf
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