Booker gives mocking speech before ‘defund the police’ vote

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker delivered a sarcastic speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday endorsing a non-binding amendment to thwart local efforts to cut funding to police.

During votes on amendments that would be part of a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Miss., introduced his amendment calling on the federal government to cut support to local governments that defund their police.

"I call on my colleagues to support our law enforcement by voting yes on this amendment. Opposing my amendment is a vote in support of defunding the police and against the men and women in blue,' Tuberville said in advance of the vote.

The amendment was designed politically to get Democrats on the record against the notion.

Booker enthusiastically took the bait and called the vote the highlight of what had been a long night for the Senate. He even threatened to hug Tuberville over his "joy."

"This senator has given the gift that finally once and for all we can put to bed this scurrilous accusation that somebody in this great, esteemed body would want to defund the police,” Booker said.

"So let’s all us – a hundred people – not walk, but sashay down there and vote for this amendment," Booker said, adding that he would like to add language to the amendment to declare that the Senate also supports God, country and apple pie, pounding the podium for emphasis.

The amendment passed unanimously and Booker did indeed hug Tuberville afterward, according to the Daily Mail.

After the vote, Tuberville said in a statement on his Twitter account that the vote proves that Democrats agree that efforts to defund police are "widely unpopular with the American people."

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ