6:17Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, left, Cory Booker, right, and Amy Klobuchar, not shown, engaged in a fiery debate on July 29, 2025, concerning an amendment that Booker intended to propose for a bipartisan bill aimed at assisting police officers and their families.Senate TV
An unusual public display of conflict among Democrats occurred on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon, as a passionate Sen. Cory Booker confronted Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Amy Klobuchar regarding his concerns about a series of bipartisan bills designed to support law enforcement and their families.
Throughout an exchange that extended for nearly an hour, an animated Booker accused his colleagues of being “complicit” in President Donald Trump’s agenda by endorsing police-related legislation during a time when he claimed the White House is politicizing funding. He pointed out that the Department of Justice is currently withholding funds from law enforcement agencies nationwide, including those in his home state of New Jersey.
“That is complicity with an authoritarian leader who is undermining our Constitution. It’s time for Democrats to stand firm. It’s time for us to take action. It’s time for us to establish a boundary. And regarding the safety of my state being denied these grants, that’s why I’m here,” Booker exclaimed on the floor.
Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, left, Cory Booker, right, and Amy Klobuchar, not shown, engaged in a fiery debate on July 29, 2025, concerning an amendment that Booker intended to propose for a bipartisan bill aimed at assisting police officers and their families.Senate TV
Booker’s remarks swiftly morphed into a pointed critique of the Democratic Party’s current predicament as it seeks to navigate Trump’s second term.
“This is a call, folks. The Democratic Party needs a wake-up call,” Booker stated. “This, to me, exemplifies the challenge facing Democrats in America right now … We’re prepared to be complicit to Donald Trump, allowing this to pass when we hold all the leverage,” he continued.
Cortez Masto, representing Nevada, and Klobuchar, from Minnesota, responded to Booker’s claims by suggesting that he was publicly voicing his stance on the floor, even though they noted he had not attended Judiciary Committee discussions on the bills and had voted in favor of them in committee.
“These bills were passed unanimously out of the Judiciary Committee weeks ago. And my colleague from New Jersey — whom I respect — is on the committee and voted to advance these bills. He had the chance then to propose this amendment; this is the first we are hearing of it,” Cortez Masto remarked.
“This is absurd. This is an attempt to derail all of these bills. I don’t understand why. All of these bills are fundamentally about bipartisan support,” she added.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., speaks during a news conference after the senate luncheons in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, July 29, 2025.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Klobuchar conveyed a similar viewpoint.
“One of the aspects I don’t grasp here is that we have committees for a purpose and we have hearings for a reason, and you can’t act one way during Police Week and then not show up, not object, and allow these bills to proceed, only to say something different weeks later in a major address on the floor,” she explained.
Booker aimed to introduce an amendment to the package that would “allocate resources to law enforcement agencies with this crucial provision that protects these grants from being politicized.”
Cortez Masto labeled it a “poison pill.”
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