Newark Mayor Cory Booker told the Wall Street Journal that the Obama campaign was not angry with him about his private-equity flap back in May. As the Obama campaign was attacking Romney over his record at Bain Capital, Booker said on “Meet the Press” that he was “uncomfortable” with the attacks. His remarks ended up being used in GOP attack ads against the president.
WSJ: What was the immediate response from the campaign?
There’s this assumption that they somehow bashed me. It wasn’t like that at all. I talked to a member of campaign, who was in no way telling me to do things, no way being difficult with me. It was more like, help us understand what you were trying to say.
They said, “Mayor, what is your concern. Let’s talk about that concern. And let’s talk about what we are trying to say with this line of attack.”
WSJ: Did the campaign tell you to stay on script?
No. That’s something I really want to make clear.
…
WSJ: Did you talk to the president about it?
I didn’t talk to the president for three or four weeks later. I tried to. Honestly he’s such adult. You have to understand he was my friend way before he was my president. I’ve known him since 2005…
I wanted to talk to him about. I went to talk to him about. I could see, he’s the president and he just knows me…It’s all small potatoes.
Booker said he’s still working hard for the campaign, including attending lots of fundraisers. He said he is now classified as a “bundler” for the campaign.
