Booker to Voters: Listen to Senator Murkowski on Trump Voting Bill

Appearing tonight on The Source with Kaitlan Collins, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) said he won't vote "for another dollar for an agency that is out of control. I'm a hard no."

He was referring, of course, to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency.

For some context, via Axios:

Momentum toward reopening DHS evaporated Tuesday as Democrats drew a hard line on reforms to ICE, swiftly rejecting a proposal that GOP senators had only just persuaded President Trump to entertain.

Why it matters: The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for more than five weeks — and the resistance from Democrats, paired with skepticism among some Republicans, including Trump, casts serious doubt on whether Congress can strike a deal this week.

  • GOP senators had just persuaded Trump to back off his demands that the SAVE America Act be included in a DHS funding package, arguing that a narrower deal could pass the Senate.

But Democrats immediately shot down the latest proposal — and some Republicans framed it as a capitulation to Democrats.

In reference to the SAVE America Act, touted by Trump, Booker told Collins that he supports voter ID laws, such as exist in his home state.

"That's not what this bill is," said the Senator. "If Donald Trump is successful, Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, said it will force people to fly on airplanes across her state [Alaska] to vote. ...Don't take my word for it. Take Republicans' word for it."

Said Murkowski yesterday on the floor of the United States Senate:

“You look at what we’re trying to chase here with this balance — with disenfranchising so many who would be faced with almost insurmountable challenges in order to register or vote — I look at this and on balance, it doesn’t weigh."

"I have no problem with voter ID but in-person voter fraud is virtually nonexistent," Booker told Collins. "You are more likely to get struck by lightning. The President is trying to create doubt about elections to divert from being a multiple time loser. It's fundamentally wrong - and dangerous... given... the dark gutters that we're in" generated by Trump.

"Mail-in voting is mail-in cheating," said Trump, who today sent in a special election  mail-in ballot.

More from Booker this evening from the floor of the U.S. Senate:

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