MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Interview with Cory Booker
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): Ari, first of all, welcome back from vacation. You look healthy, so tan that, if you shaved your head, man, you could be my stunt double around here.
(LAUGHTER)
MELBER: Well, if there`s a good enough cause, maybe we will shave our heads together someday. As you say it would take slightly more work for me.
Good to see you, Senator.
Let`s begin with these two stories. Your views on the voting rights battle, as well as anything you could tell us from that big meeting today with President Biden?
BOOKER: Yes, well, we know the voting rights battle is based on a lie, that somehow Republicans feel an urgency to pass these sweeping voter suppression laws because of some threat.
Well, the threat is that Donald Trump lost an election. And it seems to me that at a time that we are a hope for the planet as a thriving democracy, at a time that authoritarian governments from Turkey, to Hungary are making gains, now our leaders around the country want to say, hey, wait a minute, we`re in power, we`re going to change the rules, like authoritarian leaders, to make it harder for us to lose power.
So this is a crisis in our country. It`s a call to the conscience of our country. Who are we going to be, a nation that invites more voting, more participation, or a nation that makes up a lie? It`s more likely to be struck by lightning to find them to find in-person voter fraud.
And so this is a time that we need to protect our democracy. Now, the filibuster was spoken against, this idea that when the founders were actually debating our Constitution, they said to make the threshold 60 votes to pass something would enable a tyranny of the minority.
And so here we have a filibuster rule that isn`t in the Constitution, isn`t in the original ideals of the founders preventing us from protecting our very democracy at a time that, all across the planet, democracies are on their heels and authoritarian leaders, again, from China, to now we`re seeing in Latin America, are really making a rise.
MELBER: Did any of that come up in that Biden meeting, pressuring him on supporting Senate reform? Is that really -- you see the president`s role there? And what else can you tell us about the meeting?
BOOKER: Well, President Biden mentioned it because he knows, he even said, if he had one thing to talk about, was only limited to one thing, he would talk about this, because everything that we`re doing, and for generations to come, are going to really be determined by the depth of our fealty to democracy.
And so President Biden understands the grave threat that hangs over the country right now as people seek to restrict access to the polls. But the most conversation was about his infrastructure plan and how popular it was, how the Republicans, when they gave trillions of dollars of tax breaks to the wealthiest of Americans, the overwhelming majority went to the top 1 percent.
They didn`t find a pay-for, but we are we are doing this in a way that is wildly popular for child care, for prescription, dental and vision to be covered by Medicare. A lot of these things are wildly popular on both sides of the aisle. And he has a pay-for to raise taxes on people making millions and millions of dollars a year who got that Trump tax cut.
This whole package is popular, if you do not say it`s a Republican or Democratic package, wildly popular amongst Americans of all backgrounds. We can get this done, we need to stick together as a caucus. And that was a clarion call from the from the president of the United States.
MELBER: And those are all big issues that affect Americans` lives.
We did want to go deep here, because I know you`re also working on a proposal, potential legislation actually really change the federal approach to marijuana and the war on drugs.
What would you do?
BOOKER: Well, we have a lot of people rushing now to legalize marijuana, but they don`t understand that we need to make sure that this is restorative justice.
So don`t talk to me about expunging marijuana unless you`re also talking to me about -- excuse me -- legalizing marijuana without expunging people`s records, without doing things to take all those tax dollars, billions of dollars worth of tax dollars, and invest in the communities that have been disproportionately impacted by marijuana enforcement.
And talk to me about equal access to business opportunities, not just to large corporations, large Wall Street investors. There`s a lot in our bill really about doing this the right way. And here`s the rub for me, is, I am now a member of a body where people running for the House, for the Senate, and even the presidency readily admit using marijuana.
But we have a nation where there were more marijuana arrests in 2019 than all violent crime arrests combined. People`s lives are being destroyed over this, low-income people, disproportionately black and brown people, and folks want to race to legalize without addressing what has been really the dangers and the harms of prohibition.
We have got to do this right way. I have been leading on this bill for five, six, seven years. But now guess what? We have the first time in American history the majority leader of the United States Senate is leading in Chuck Schumer. And the head of one of the most powerful committees, the Finance Committee, Ron Wyden, is leading as well.
[18:15:06]
This is a historic day of us introducing this, and we have a lot more momentum to get it done.
MELBER: Well, I`m glad that, on this day, you can make time for us.
And, senator, I have interviewed you before. The thing that we started talking about the first time I met you, the thing that I know was a key in your campaigns, including a presidential campaign, and here you are on it tonight, it`s clear you care a lot about this. And we have a drug war that`s racist in its impact. That`s just an objective fact.
And so trying to deal with this holistically is something that clearly merits a lot of attention. So I`m glad you could bring it to us on THE BEAT as well.
Senator, thanks for your time tonight.
BOOKER: No, Ari, you are committed to this issue. You are committed to criminal justice reform.
And I know, when we pass the first ever marijuana decriminalization bill, you will celebrate by shaving your head. So I appreciate that commitment to me.
(LAUGHTER)
MELBER: I was like, where`s he going with it? OK, it`s all tied together.
Let the record reflect I did not affirm or deny.
(LAUGHTER)
MELBER: Senator, thank you very much.
BOOKER: Who is a politician here? You sound like a politician, man. OK.
You`re equivocating.
MELBER: Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source