Cory Booker Calls Rival’s Comments On His Sexuality ‘Unacceptable’

Newark Mayor and U.S. Senate candidate Cory Booker addresses a gathering after winning the Democratic primary election for the seat vacated by the late U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013, in Newark, N.J.
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Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker, the Democratic candidate in the Garden State’s special Senate election, responded to comments his Republican opponent, Steve Lonegan, made about his sexuality in an interview with HuffPost Live Wednesday. Booker said Lonegan’s remarks were “really unacceptable.”

“It is just disheartening to hear somebody in this day and age in the United States of America say basically that gay men are not men,” Booker said, adding, “Instead he is challenging the masculinity of millions of Americans, and that is really unacceptable and that goes against everything I was taught about this country and what we stand for.”

Booker was referring to an interview Lonegan gave to Newsmax in which he mocked Booker for saying he’s not concerned with speculation about Booker’s own sexuality.

“As a guy, I personally like being a guy. … I don’t know if you saw the stories last year. They’ve been out for quite a bit about how he likes to go out at 3 o’clock in the morning for a manicure and a pedicure,” said Lonegan. “Maybe that helps to get him the gay vote by acting ambiguous. … I don’t like going out in the middle of the night, or any time of the day, for a manicure and pedicure. It was described as his peculiar fetish is how it was described. I have a more peculiar fetish. I like a good Scotch and a cigar. That’s my fetish but we’ll just compare the two.”

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