JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Democratic Senator Cory Booker has had plenty of criticism for the Trump administration.
CORY BOOKER: The Senate has to stop functioning like business as usual. When you have an executive that is overreaching their power, it is the responsibility of the Senate to check that power.
SUMMERS: Though, he also understands that Democrats are in the minority in Congress.
BOOKER: I'm being faithful to the Constitution. And like Mother Teresa once said, I was called to be faithful, not necessarily successful.
SUMMERS: Regardless, he keeps trying to shock the Senate into action. Last year, he broke the record for the longest continuous floor speech in the Senate when he addressed Trump administration policies for over 25 straight hours.
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BOOKER: In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans' safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy.
SUMMERS: Having literally stood for over a day straight, Senator Cory Booker's new book is called "Stand." It is not about the politics of the current moment, at least not directly. But it is an argument for moral principles, for 10 virtues he sees as critical to American life, like agency and patriotism but also vulnerability and humility. He illustrates them with historical examples, so I had to ask.
You open by talking about the concept of virtue. And some people might find that to be a sort of curious choice given the tenor of our political rhetoric right now. Say more about that choice.
BOOKER: I actually think that Democrats and others make a mistake when they center this moment in American history around Donald Trump, make him the main character of the story. I think there's been a lot leading to this. And we are in tough times. And I hear a lot of fear and anger and anguish from Americans asking, what can I do?
And so I wanted to write a book that spoke directly to that hurt and to this fear about what's happening to our country and explain to folks, through inspiration and hopefully instruction, what people in the past have done in moments like this, which is to evidence the best of American virtues - not Democrat or Republican virtues, but the best of who we are. Virtue is strategy. Virtue is how we win. Virtues are vital, especially in dark times.
SUMMERS: I think we've all heard the term virtue signaling as a criticism of empty rhetoric. What do you say to people, to critics out there who might point out that you're giving speeches and writing a book at a moment that demands urgent, coordinated action?
BOOKER: Well, to me, one is a part of the other. And all through my career, from a 10-day hunger strike in the projects in Newark, which became a sounding board for big changes in our city, to even standing for 25 hours...
SUMMERS: Yeah.
BOOKER: ...To do what? To share the stories of Americans. This is a time where we need to begin to have that renewal and that revival of what is the instruction for action. And so I'm just a big believer that if we allow the expediency of the moment to make us surrender our virtues and our values, if we think we can - Martin Luther King never made a mistake. They never thought they could beat Bull Connor by bringing bigger dogs and bigger fire hoses. They chose, in that moment, to spark the moral imagination of a nation, to bring forth the best of who we are, to beat the darkness that threatened us. So this is one of those moments. And how we fight is actually going to be determinative what kind of victory we have.
SUMMERS: I mean, you're a leader in your party. And there is so much debate right now over how to meet the urgency of this moment. So I want to ask you, Senator, is the Democratic Party doing enough to meet the moment right now?
BOOKER: Heck, no. I think the Democratic Party helped pave the road to the crisis we're in right now. I have a lot of deep, enduring frustrations with how our party has come up short and failed, even on things that are just obvious to anybody that works in Washington about how deeply corrupt this town is with, I would say, billions of dollars of cash flowing in from the wealthiest corporations and industries trying to pervert what we do. We've normalized the abnormal and Americans are sick of it. And so we need a restorative vision that could begin to heal our country because right now, the same old same old is just not going to do it.
SUMMERS: You have, in the past, said that you're party, the Democratic Party, it needs change and a new generation of leaders to stand up to President Trump and Republicans. So I want to ask you about the leadership in the Senate. Is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer the right leader for the moment?
BOOKER: Well, there's going to be an election in a matter of months. And I think there'll be a lot of new senators coming in. And I think there's going to be a real debate and discussion about how do we lead into the next Congress. Right now, the most important thing - I say this as a former football player. When I was in the huddle, I would always tell people I know when we're going to score a touchdown is when the other huddle is divided against themselves, and they're yelling and fighting. We've got a unified caucus right now. We need to stay together and unified. But come November, there's going to be debate and discussion about how we lead after November. And I think that's going to be a very important one.
SUMMERS: Should Senator Schumer still be that later after November?
BOOKER: I think he's going to have to make his case before the caucus. And we'll see who will challenge him. But that's going to be a very important election.
SUMMERS: You ran for president back in 2020, and I spent some time with you on the campaign trail. But you're also frequently mentioned as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028. What's on your mind? What are you weighing as you make that choice?
BOOKER: Well, I'm focused on reelection. But I'm telling people, without any kind of restraint, that I think this '28 election is going to be the moment where we need to redeem the dream. And I'm going to be involved in some way in the national conversation because I'm angry. I'm angry at my party. I'm angry at how much we've missed the moment and how we need to change the national conversation from narrow divides and debates to the big issues that are facing America and give what I think my grandfather found in FDR when most Blacks were Republicans.
And why did he switch? Not because he liked our party but because he felt like it was a redemption moment where the dream of America was redeemed with this New Deal that was promised. So no matter what happens in '28, I'm going to be fierce. And if it means not being a presidential candidate but one of those people that, like, if you want my endorsement, you better be standing up and giving a vision for this country that is specific and makes people believe again that we can be a party that actually delivers for people.
SUMMERS: What do you think the Democratic Party's most urgent challenge is today?
BOOKER: Leadership. It really is. You can't have great courage without great fear. And so I have fear that we are missing a leadership moment. But I see my courage being given strength by new leaders emerging around this country. There are extraordinary new senators, from Alsobrooks and Lisa Blunt Rochester to Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff. I mean, my - I should say, Andy Kim is one of the guys that gives me strength every day from New Jersey. There are new candidates out there I see around the country, like Talarico down in Texas. It is a - there is a new generation of leaders that I think have the promise to meet this moment.
And then on local levels, I've just been running around my state, talking to my county committees. And I see these young people, teenagers and in their 20s running for their first offices in the same way that I did against the establishment, against the machine. So if there's anything that I get excited about for the Democratic Party right now is that sense of renewal. It is our time to renew America and to redeem the dream. So to me, it is a time of great fear and great courage, great worry but great hope. And I want us to seize this moment.
SUMMERS: New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. His new book is "Stand." Thanks for stopping by.
BOOKER: Thank you for having me.
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