Cory Booker vows DNC will take high road, berates RNC for ‘lock her up’ chants
CLEVELAND — Democrats who gathered Thursday for the Clinton campaign’s counterconvention, less than a mile from the Republican National Convention site, blasted the event and vowed their convention next week in Philadelphia would have a kinder tone.
Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who chairs the Democratic National Committee, berated the GOP convention’s speakers and delegates for connecting Hillary Clinton to Lucifer and leading chants of “Lock her up!” Separately, an adviser to GOP nominee Donald Trump said Clinton should be executed by a firing squad.
“These chants of ‘lock someone up,’ take away their liberty, throw them in prisons — that’s why we had a revolution in this country, against those ideas,” said Booker, a rumored potential Hillary Clinton vice presidential pick who delivered an emotional defense of the presumptive Democratic nominee Thursday morning.
“And in a convention where people were getting all upset because there’s a ‘war on Christmas,’ this Christian wished I saw love. I wish I saw compassion. I wish I saw some Christian kindness,” Booker continued. “I wish I saw that when people were standing up to verbally stone a woman, that someone would have stood up and said, ‘Hey, look at yourself first.’”
Booker vowed that there would be no such ugliness at the DNC in Philadelphia, which kicks off Monday. “No one will be leading chants so filled with hate,” he promised. “Nobody’s going to be wearing T-shirts calling for violence against other Americans.”
Booker danced around a question of whether he would be in Florida this Friday and Saturday, where Clinton is expected to announce her running mate. “I’m happy to do whatever the coach asks me to do,” he said when asked about his future role in the campaign.
There was some sense of Democratic schadenfreude over the Republican event, which was marred by Melania Trump’s plagiarism scandal, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz getting booed on stage after telling delegates to “vote your conscience” and numerous high-profile Republicans skipping Cleveland altogether.
Franken, a former comedian who called the convention’s tone “startlingly ugly,” poked fun over how many speakers thus far have been Trump’s relatives. “One thing I will say about [vice presidential candidate Mike] Pence’s speech: It was refreshing to see somebody say something good about Donald Trump who wasn’t actually related to him or stood to inherit a lot of his money,” he quipped.
Wasserman Schultz pointed to the chaos that occurred Wednesday night when Cruz, who ran a fierce campaign against Trump, refused to endorse his own party’s nominee and then was roundly booed during his RNC speech. The Trump campaign was responsible for “orchestrating the booing and jeering of their own primetime speaker,” Wasserman Schultz told reporters.
The Clinton campaign has held daily press events from its Cleveland counterconvention headquarters and sent dozens of rapid-response emails during the night’s speeches rebutting RNC speakers’ claims.
The Democratic National Convention may face its own drama, depending on how supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders decide to act. In the past, Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver said he believed some Sanders delegates would boo Wasserman Schultz, though the campaign has encouraged them not to. However, Sanders has since endorsed Clinton and been offered a prime speaking slot, soothing some tensions between the camps.
