An enraged Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) shouted over Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for eight straight minutes Thursday before joining his fellow Democrats in storming out of a business meeting to consider President Trump’s nominees — including that of his former personal attorney, Emil Bove.
Booker threw a fit after Grassley spurned his request to debate Bove’s nomination to the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals and proceeded with a vote to report the nominee to the Senate floor after Democrats vacated the meeting room.
“I don’t understand this,” Booker raged. “What are you afraid of, about even debating this, putting things on the record, hearing from every senator?”
“Dear God. That’s what our obligations are,” he continued. ” … There’s no need to rush this.”
“You are obligated to address a point of order according to the rules of this committee,” the Garden Stater went on. “You can overrule me by a Senate vote. You’re violating your own rules.”
Grassley rebuffed Booker, telling him he was “out of order” for interrupting proceedings.
Democrats had wanted to hear from a whistleblower, fired former Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni, who alleged Bove encouraged the Trump administration to ignore a court order.
According to Reuveni, Bove while serving as principal deputy attorney general insisted that migrant flights to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) complex “take off no matter what” after a federal judge ordered the transit halted.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has denied Reuveni accusations as “utterly false.”
Booker, who broke a Senate filibuster record in April, decried the ordeal as “absolutely insane.”
“We’re simply asking for a credible amount of time to air our concerns before the vote,” said Booker, who in April broke the Senate’s record for longest filibuster speech.
“This undermines the basic decency of this committee.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) was heard murmuring “this is a kangaroo court” as she and other Democrats — including ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) stormed out of the room.
During his outburst, Booker lauded the 91-year-old Grassley as a “good man” and a “decent man.”
“Why are you doing this? What is Donald Trump saying to you that is making you do something which is violating the decorum of this committee, the rules of this committee, the decency?”
Senate Republicans have been under pressure to pick up the pace with judicial nominations after lagging behind both the Biden administration and the first Trump administration.
On Thursday, despite the Democrats’ protests, the Judiciary Committee advanced the nominations of Bove and four other Trump choices for the federal bench.
