New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker says President Donald Trump and his administration are “repeatedly lying to the American public” and spreading “propaganda to mislead the public.”
“A week in office and we have seen the President of the United States and his officials repeatedly lying to the American public and pushing out what could be called — what we’ve seen in other regimes throughout history — what can be called propaganda to mislead the public,” Booker told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront.” “He needs to be called out on it, and we, as an American public, should not accept a president that routinely lies, blatantly, to the American people.”
Asked if he agreed with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who called Trump a “delusional president” Thursday, Booker said, “I don’t know his mental state. What I do know is he a liar, repeatedly so.”
He added that he believes Trump is pushing an agenda “that is not in concert with honor or with the facts.”
Trump and his administration have come under heavy criticism for falsely claiming he had the largest inauguration audience ever and that millions of votes were cast illegally in last year’s presidential election.
Booker called out Trump for the voter fraud allegation, calling it “stunning and deeply offensive given the challenges we’ve had with voting in our country’s history.” He accused Trump of “doing the bidding, I think, of those who want to undermine voting” and that the larger problem in the United States is voter suppression.
The New Jersey senator also criticized Trump’s expected executive order to temporarily ban refugees from entering the United States. Booker expressed confidence in the current vetting system and called the move “a violation of something we’ve been able to do for generations.”
“This is just a wrong assault on people who are the most vulnerable, who are the most persecuted on the planet Earth,” he said. “This is just so wrong-headed and such a betrayal of the truth of who we are and who we claim to be in the world. We should be a beacon of light and hope, but we’re allowing other countries who have the same concerns for terrorism to out-America us because they’re stepping up to the plate during a time of crisis and welcoming persecuted people.”