Sen. Cory Booker told CNN on Sunday that Democrats need to stop focusing on party mechanics and start rebuilding trust with voters, arguing that the Democratic “party apparatus” has failed to meet the moment and “desperately needs new leadership.”
SEN. CORY BOOKER: Well, first of all, I have had frustrations, as you and I were talking off camera, with the Democratic Party for a long time.
And the DNC has got to do a lot better if they’re going to meet this moment in history. What I see when I travel around, though, is not people concerned with the Democratic Party. And my advice to the party leaders is that, be less concerned about the party and far more concerned about the American people.
The American people have lost trust because of all politics as usual. People are suffering, people are hurting, and they’re going to support the leaders. And I’m seeing this in Talarico, in Ossoff, in Cooper in North Carolina, that those leaders are stepping up and saying, I don’t give a damn about parties. I care about people. You cannot lead the people if they don’t trust you, and that’s what’s lacking right now with the party apparatus. But the people running out there that I’m running around this country trying to support, they’re building real trust with the American people, and that’s my hope.
TAPPER: So what’s the message from Leader Schumer or Leader Jeffries on helping the American people?
I mean, I cover this for a living, and I’m not sure there’s a coherent message about, elect Democrats because this is what we’re going to do. I mean, I know you all hate Trump, but what else?
BOOKER: Well, that’s, again, plainly what I have been saying. You are not going to win this election just by what you’re against. You need to start articulating who you’re for and what you’re for. Have a vision that’s compelling that not only engenders trust, but makes sense for the American people.
TAPPER: You still have faith in Schumer to be in charge of your party?
BOOKER: I am telling people left and right we are five months out from election. What is going to make the Republicans gleeful is if we’re talking about each other in the Democratic Party and not talking about the realities that Americans are facing.
I am tired of all this machination about party politics. We are in a crisis right now, millions of Americans losing their health insurance, their costs skyrocketing. I talk to more and more New Jerseyans who are barely staying afloat. Enough of normal party politics.
We need to focus on the people, and the Democratic Party desperately needs new leadership, and that’s what’s exciting me about this cycle. It’s not only new leaders emerging, but a new vision for our party. But you can damn well be sure that I’m going to be talking about what our party needs to do to change and what — our party needs to go.
And the biggest issue for me, and I think what makes me frustrated with politics as usual, is the massive corruption going on in all three branches, from a Supreme Court that’s taking unlimited gifts from billionaires who have interest in matters before them, to congresspeople trading stocks and accepting corporate cash and corporate PAC money, to a president who is setting records for being the greatest grifter in chief we have ever seen.
We need real change that engenders trust again in American politics, but, more importantly, in the people that are standing up right now and saying we need change.
TAPPER: But when you say you need new leadership, who? Who? I mean, new leadership suggests, first of all, that the old leadership, the current leadership, is not delivering.
So you haven’t said you want Schumer to go, but that’s a — kind of a subtext of it.
BOOKER: No.
TAPPER: Who is — who should be leading your party?
BOOKER: Look, again, this is why primaries are helpful, and this is why people who want to lead right now need to be stepping up and putting a vision before the American people.
I see that in the people I’m going to campaign for. And even in New Jersey, I’m rolling out new vision, get rid of income tax, federal income tax for the families. Your first $75,000 should not be taxed. That would give about 10 percent more income to most Americans, and I put out a plan to do that.
An anti-corruption policy that makes literally senators not be able to trade stocks. It’s why I don’t take corporate PAC money. It’s why I don’t take issue area PAC money. We need to start talking about why billionaires and the biggest corporations, we had 88 last year, pay no taxes of our biggest corporation, while firefighters or military people serving right now are paying a higher effective tax rate.
The system is rigged. People feel that, and they need leaders that speak to that pain and have a vision to get us out of it.
TAPPER: All right, Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, good luck in your primary running against nobody.
