An emotional debate erupts over the anti-lynching law as Cory Booker opposes Rand Paul’s change
“Senator Paul is now trying to weaken an already passed bill – there’s no reason for that, there’s no reason for that,” Harris said.
In emotional remarks, Booker said he feels “so raw” today, saying, “we do it all day right now when God, if this law is passed today, what it would mean for America. That this body and that body have finally agreed. . ”
“That would say a lot about the racial pain and injury of generations,” Booker said. Raising his voice, he continued, “I don’t need a colleague, a Kentucky senator, to tell me about a lynching in this country. I was standing at a museum in Montgomery, Alabama, watching African American families cry stories about pregnant women lynching in this country and their babies were torn out of them until this body did nothing. ”
Pointing to Paul, Booker said he does not question Paul’s heart, but strongly disagrees with his actions.
“My colleague, Rand Paul, is one of the first hands I shook,” on the Senate floor, Booker said. “He’s my friend … but I’m so raw today.”
“I want to change this legislation, not because I take lynching lightly, but because I take it seriously, and this law doesn’t,” Paul said, arguing that “this proposal would reduce the meaning of lynching by defining it so broadly that it includes minor bruising or abrasion. The history of our nation’s racial terrorism demands more seriousness from us. ”
Shortly afterwards, GOP sister Lisa Murkowski of Alaska came out to speak for a speech she had planned to maintain women’s suffrage for weeks. She should have talked a moment before the speech about the debate he had just seen and uttered his words about the situation in the country.
“I just want you to know that I’m grateful to have heard it here on the floor in person. We can read the words, but when we get the true meaning of those words, when we really have the ability to hear and feel them,” Murkowski told Booker and Harris.
Murkowski said she wants to talk today because she feels like she’s been too silent.
“Some have challenged me. Some have denied me … from some very close friends who say, ‘You’re quiet, Lisa.’ Why didn’t you fix what we see? “I struggled with the right words. As a white woman born and raised in Alaska with a privileged family, I can’t feel that openness and cruelty I just heard, expressed by my friends Cory and Kamala, and I didn’t live their lives. I can listen and they can be educated and they can try to be healers when we need to be healed. “
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