MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker says having been a big city mayor distinguishes him from his rivals for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Asked during a campaign stop in Marshalltown, Iowa, what separates him from fellow Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, he said it’s that he’s “run something.”
Booker was mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013 before being elected to the U.S. Senate. He says the experience running a troubled urban center during a financial crisis would help him as president.
Harris, a senator from California, was attorney general of her state for eight years before her 2016 election to the Senate. Warren, a Massachusetts senator, was a law school professor and a leading advocate for the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before entering the Senate.
I’d like to know exactly what the language was here, and specifically who posed the comparison. Was it Booker saying “Unlike Warren and Harris, I’ve run something”, or did Booker respond “I’ve run something” in response to someone asking “What separates you from Harris and Warren?”
Semi-instinctively, I’m put off by going after other candidates by name at this point in the cycle. But it’s a totally fair answer to a question, especially as a non-rehearsed, off the cuff answer.
So why aren’t we seeing the full quote and not just the hatchet-job phrase?
Seems like the full answer is much more nuanced and to-the-point about how his specific role as Mayor, coordinating the actions of myriad different offices, prepares him for an Executive Branch position.
what separates him from fellow Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, he said it’s that he’s “run something.”
Sounds like his candidacy is dead before arrival.
It would be instructive to see the context of the remark.
The raw take is that if we now must have “qualifications”, BHO was “unqualified” for the WH.
But I hope there was more elaboration than the hit bit we see here.