Cory Booker in Meet the Press interviews during 2019


On Civil Rights: Not enough to say "not a hatemonger myself"

Martin Luther King said what we have to repent is not just the vitriolic words and violent actions of bad people, but the appalling silence and inaction of good people. There is a complicity in the president's hatred that undermines the goodness and decency of Americans, regardless of what party. It's not enough to say that, "I'm not a hatemonger myself." If you are not actively working against hate, calling it out, you are complicit in what is going on.
Source: Meet the Press interview for 2019 Democratic primary Aug 4, 2019

On Civil Rights: Next president must talk openly and honestly about race

The next president needs to be someone who can talk openly and honestly about race with vulnerability. Because none of us are perfect. That nominee needs to be able to pull this country together. Because we need to reconcile. When it comes to difficult issues with race, if you can't talk about your own development on these issues, I think it's very hard to lead our country forward, so that we actually can deal with our past and rise to a better common cause and common future.
Source: NBC News Meet the Press 2019 interview Jun 30, 2019

On Drugs: The war on drugs has been a war on people

I came from Yale and Stanford, where people were using marijuana, using drugs, where there's no difference between drug usage and drug selling between blacks and whites. But African Americans are almost four times more likely to be incarcerated for those things. This war on drugs has been a war on people. We have had a 500% increase in the prison population since 1980, overwhelmingly black and brown. There's more African Americans under criminal supervision today than all the slaves in 1850.
Source: Meet the Press 2019 interview series Jun 30, 2019

The above quotations are from Meet the Press interviews during 2019
(Chuck Todd interviewing candidates for 2019-2020 races).
Click here for other excerpts from Meet the Press interviews during 2019
(Chuck Todd interviewing candidates for 2019-2020 races).
Click here for other excerpts by Cory Booker.
Click here for a profile of Cory Booker.
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Page last updated: Jan 12, 2020