CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: "Interview with Sen. Cory Booker"

Interview

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CABRERA: Senator, good to have you with us.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thanks for having me, Ana.

CABRERA: First, your reaction to this news of a second whistleblower?

BOOKER: I don't find it surprising. I think that there are a lot of people that witnessed this kind of behavior and we're only at the beginning of knowing the depth and the breath of it. Remember, this is now an allegation that has not only implicated the president by his own language but we now know it's also the State Department and the secretary of State. It's also the Department of Justice and the attorney general.

There are dozens of people that witnessed this behavior and I imagine more people will be coming forward with more aspects of the truth, which is what the public deserves.

CABRERA: A few Republican senators, Susan Collins, Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse have now come out and criticized the president specifically over what he said about China, calling on China to investigate Joe Biden, but do you have any reason to believe that if it came time to actually vote, they would side with Democrats to remove a Republican president from office?

BOOKER: Look, I'm going to remain a prisoner of hope that we will see people when the time comes who will choose patriotism over partisanship, who will choose what's in the long-term best interest of this country over what's in their short-term political interest. We saw that in the Nixon impeachment efforts that eventually Republicans seeing what the evidence was broke with him. That's why I think this process that Nancy Pelosi and House leadership is going through right now to get all the evidence out there because I think all Americans have a line, they have a line, that they know that if a president does certain things, enough is enough. No matter what their partisan views are, that's too far.

This to me is going to be a period in which a lot of stuff is going to expose this president for what he's done. And I think people are going to see more and more that he chooses to pursue his own petty personal ambitions and interests over what is the national security and I'm hopeful that we will see profiles in courage as this evidence gets laid out plainly before the American people that more Republicans will do the right thing.

CABRERA: Senator, the president has continued to throw out more baseless allegations against Joe Biden this weekend on Twitter.

[20:30:00]

The former vice president has now taken the president -- taken on the president directly in a new Washington Post op-ed, and he writes this, Trump is frantically pushing flat-out lies, debunked conspiracy theories and smears against me and my family, no doubt hoping to undermine my candidacy for the presidency, but it won't work, because the American people know me, and they know him.

To be clear, there is no evidence of wrongdoing by the former vice president or his son, Hunter Biden, even the Ukrainian prosecutor has said as much. Senator, if the overwhelming issue for Democrats is, President Trump must be defeated, do you feel that you and other Democrats should be doing more to speak in one voice that Joe Biden's family is off-limits?

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I've said time and time again, that this is unacceptable, that if you come after Joe Biden, you're going to have to deal with me in this case. There is no -- as you said, these are baseless, unfounded, scurrilous lies, plain and simple, trying to undermine the character of one of the statesmen of our country, not our party, but our country.

And so, yes, you got a problem with me. I can't speak for this in a political context. This is just me as an American, to see this kind of attacks and whether the lies the president tells about Joe Biden or lies that he tells about other American citizens to demean and degrade them.

CABRERA: Senator Cory Booker, I really appreciate the time tonight. Good luck on the campaign trail. Thank you for joining us.

BOOKER: Thank you very much.

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