New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (D) pledged to keep opposing the Trump administration's policies even if President Donald Trump puts him "in jail," a fanciful scenario that came from Booker's own mind.
In an interview with MSNBC's Jen Psaki, Booker taunted Trump to arrest him after he singled out the senator for criticism.
Several Democrats have been arrested or detained while protesting Trump's hardline immigration policies, leading critics to accuse Trump of "authoritarianism."
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) was detained after disrupting a Department of Homeland Security press conference in June. The mayor of Newark -- a city Booker once led -- and New Jersey Congresswoman LaMonica McIver were both arrested over a scuffle outside an ICE facility in Newark.
Many say that Democrats are deliberately instigating these scenes for publicity. But Booker suggested that politicians in New Jersey are being targeted arbitrarily, and he could be next.
"My Congresswoman LaMonica McIver arresting her, my mayor they’ve arrested, they’re picking off, it seems, people that live in Newark that are in elected positions," Booker lamented.
"But I don’t care throw me in jail. Do what you have to do. I’m going to continue to stand up for what’s right," he said.
Booker concluded, “I’m hoping that when one person stands up and calls this out, it ignites the courage of another person and another person and another person. We have to at a time that our fundamental rights and freedoms, that the very democracy that we that we know is precious, is under attack by this president. We’ve got to have more people willing to stand up and fight and take him on.”
Trump did not mention arresting Booker when he criticized the senator this week over an anti-ICE bill.
The bill, which Booker introduced with Padilla, would require ICE agents to identify themselves and prevent them from wearing masks. ICE agents have faced rising threats from the left, with ten people charged with attempted murder over a recent ambush at a detention facility in Texas.
Trump said ICE agents require anonymity to do their jobs safely in the current political climate, which has seen Democrats compare ICE agents to Nazis.
"These officers are doing a tremendous job," Trump said. "They're great patriots. If you expose them because of, you know, statements like have been made by Democrat and others on the left, usually mostly, I think, probably exclusively, you put them in great danger, tremendous danger."
Booker is notorious for engaging in flamboyant political theater, setting a new record for the longest Senate speech in history earlier this year, although the stunt was quickly forgotten.
In his latest bid for publicity, Booker is indulging a fantasy of being arrested by the Trump administration. But we doubt Trump cares enough about Booker to satisfy this desire of his.
