Booker on hug with McCain after healthcare vote: ‘I’m a hugger’

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) recounted his hug with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) following the Senate’s vote last week to advance debate on a GOP ObamaCare repeal bill, saying simply: “I’m a hugger.”

“I’m a hugger, and so I hugged John McCain. And by the time I get home, I’m getting blown up on the internet,” he said.

.@CoryBooker on why he hugged Sen. McCain after the healthcare vote– he won’t let darkness win. #lovearmy pic.twitter.com/uzsKpNbtLh

— Apollo Theater (@ApolloTheater) August 6, 2017

Booker spoke with Van Jones at the CNN commentator’s “We Rise Tour,” and described the Senate vote in which McCain dramatically came onto the Senate floor for a vote following his brain cancer diagnosis. 

{mosads}McCain voted to advance debate on the GOP ObamaCare repeal bill. Despite the vote, which Democrats were against, Booker and others, including Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hugged McCain.

Cory Booker giving McCain a hug after he casts his vote pic.twitter.com/SLapaYDInm

— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) July 25, 2017

“Long story short,” Booker said, “he comes to the Senate floor to do what I don’t want him to do. In fact, he puts the vote in to move the bill that I’ve been fighting to the floor. And then, the vote’s over. We line up. Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders we go over there and hug him.”  

Booker explained that the hug was a welcome back to the Senate floor following McCain’s cancer diagnosis and that he looked at McCain with admiration for his strength.

“He won’t let darkness win,” Booker said, according to the Apollo Theater, where the event was held.

McCain ultimately voted to kill the bill in a Senate vote a day later.