Cory Booker defends conduct toward female Cabinet secretary as ‘on point’

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Wednesday defended his questioning of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen during a hearing, after the Republican National Committee (RNC) accused him of “mansplaining.”

“My conduct was on point, and my personal emotion in all of this should be understood. I will fight against bigotry, racism, sexism, homophobia wherever I see it because I have benefitted from people speaking up in years past and I will do the same,” Booker, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, told CNN’s Jake Tapper. 

{mosads}The RNC sent an email Wednesday slamming Booker, 48, as “Derogatory Cory,” and urging readers to picture a Republican male senator “mansplaining” to a female Cabinet secretary.

The committee concluded the email with the phrase “nevertheless, she persisted,” which was adopted by feminist groups after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) used it while justifying silencing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on the Senate floor last year. 

Booker disputed the charge that he had “mansplained.” 

“It’s a little insulting to say that I should be treating Cabinet secretaries one way or another depending upon their gender,” he said. 

The senator blasted Nielsen on Tuesday after she said she did not hear President Trump referring to some African nations, El Salvador and Haiti as “shithole countries.” 

“When ignorance and bigotry is allied with power, it is a dangerous force in our country. Your silence and your amnesia is complicity,” Booker said to Nielsen.