*Senator Cory Booker jolted everyone awake on the Senate floor Tuesday when he literally shouted a deliberately over-the-top endorsement of a GOP proposal against defunding the police, attempting to “put to bed” their insistence that all Democrats want to abolish all police departments.
Republicans and conservative media – led by Fox News – have been pushing a false narrative that all Democrats want to do away completely with police departments in a fit of “wokeness,” their new go-to pejorative to describe any attempt at social justice and racial equality by the left.
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville’s amendment to the Democrats’ 2022 budget resolution would cut federal funding to local governments that defund law enforcement. It was written in response to a call from some progressives to reallocate police funding ( aka “defund the police”) that gained traction after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
On the Senate floor, Tuberville said four-fifths of law enforcement across the country was conducted by local and state police departments, adding: “Local leaders across the country have decided the woke thing to do is cancel their city’s police force.” He said taxpayers in his state should not have “to pick up the tab for the local leaders in Oregon and Minnesota who value the woke ‘defund the police’ movement over their own community’s safety.”
After Tuberville sat down, Booker sprang up with a mocking riff on how the GOP falsely portrays the Democrats’ as anti-police.
“Madam President, I am so excited,” said Booker as he clapped his hands together. “This is a gift. If it wasn’t a complete abdication of Senate procedures … I would walk over there and hug my colleague from Alabama.”
Booker continued: “There are some people who’ve said that there are members of this deliberative body that want to defund the police— to my horror. This senator has given us the gift of finally, once and for all, we can put to bed this scurrilous accusation that somebody in this great esteemed body would want to defund the police.”
He then urged his fellow senators to “sashay” down to vote for Tuberville’s non-binding amendment, which will “put to rest the lies.” He added that he was “sure I will see no political ads attacking anybody here over defund the police.”
Booker continued: “I would ask unanimous consent to add something else to this obvious bill. Can we add also that every senator here wants to defund the police, believes in God, country and apple pie?”
After the amendment passed 99 to zero, (yes, all Democrats voted in favor), Tuberville tried to get in a damage control jab on twitter, writing: “Senate Democrats pounce at chance to distance themselves from ‘defund police’ rhetoric.”
Watch Booker’s trolling antics below:
“This is a gift,” Cory Booker says in an animated speech praising Tommy Tuberville’s non-binding amendment to punish localities that defund the police.
“I am sure I will see no political ads attacking anybody here over defund the police.”
It passed 99-0, all Dems voted for it. pic.twitter.com/GUqAfcSlxH
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) August 11, 2021
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