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Opinion

BOOKER: Is Trashing Sessions As ‘Racist’ A Play At Running For PRESIDENT?

Race baiting in the United States highest chamber of government has to be one for the record books and indeed it was. Democratic Sen. Cory Booker abandoned a long-standing precedent this week when he testified against fellow sitting Senator Jeff Sessions. The freshman senator from New Jersey implored the Senate to not confirm Sessions for attorney general, even though he offered no specifics, facts or even legitimate rationale.

In other words, Booker was laying the groundwork for a highly probable presidential run in 2020 while trashing the Alabama senator. For liberals, this type of behavior is expected on the outside of the Senate, and one only need turn to the deplorable likes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who have made quite a career off of race baiting.

But for a U.S. senator to engage in such low brow theatrics and offer not one scintilla of evidence to back up his bogus claims is indeed dishonorable and deserves a rebuke from both his fellow senators as well as from the public itself. In fact, it was Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark, who admonished the unwarranted attacks on Sessions by stating on Facebook he was “disappointed” Booker “has chosen to start his 2020 presidential campaign by testifying against Senator Sessions.”

Booker, who had been prancing around the Clinton dog and pony political stage in 2016 in order to demonstrate to the losing candidate that he had the right stuff to be her vice-presidential nominee did not measure up to her low-bar standards. So, this time he made a play to thrust his low achieving Senate accomplishment-thin resume into the 2020 race in the hopes that he will be noticed.

Unfortunately for Booker, he is no Barack Obama, who although thread bare in Senate achievements, could bedazzle an audience with his soaring, well-crafted rhetoric. Sen. Booker on the other hand seemed to babble on as if he had forgotten his lines, and instead relied upon ill-timed passion that was uttered with less than average persuasive tones.

Yet, for those that have watched Booker’s less than glamorous pronouncements in the Senate it is his uplifting utterances of support for Sessions last year that makes his hypocritical condemnation of the Alabama senator so offensive. In 2016, Booker lauded Sen. Sessions for partnering with him on a Senate bill honoring participants of the Selma civil rights marches with the Congressional Gold Medal.

At that time Sen. Booker said, “I feel blessed and honored to have partnered with Senator Sessions in being the Senate sponsors of this important award,” reported Fox News.

Fortunately for Sessions, when Sen. Booker was going low, South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the other black member of the Senate chamber, disagreed with Booker for his appearance Wednesday. An array of black ministers came to Sessions defense and testified to the honor, integrity and commitment Sessions has displayed in defense of civil rights.

Perhaps Booker should have taken a page of the playbook of Tim Scott, and showed some respect for the chamber that he was elected to instead of fabricating nonsensical notions he is known for doing. In fact, Sen. Cotton referred to that illuminating point in his comments about Booker, who had claimed for years that he was threatened while mayor by an ever-elusive person called T-Bone, according to Fox News.

As it turns out, Booker had lied about a so-called T-Bone. Sen. Cotton amusingly referred to T-Bone in his Twitter post, saying, Booker’s “attacks on Jeff Sessions are so far-fetched I half-expected his make-believe friend T-Bone to be next witness.”

photo credit: Modified from: The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Cos. _MG_1407 via photopin (license)

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Kevin Fobbs

Kevin Fobbs has more than 35 years of wide-ranging experience as a community and tenant organizer, Legal Services outreach program director, public relations consultant, business executive, gubernatorial and presidential appointee, political advisor, widely published writer, and national lecturer. Kevin is co-chair and co-founder of AC-3 (American-Canadian Conservative Coalition) that focuses on issues on both sides of the border between the two countries.