Klobuchar brushes off Booker dust-up, says they will ‘continue to fight’ Trump

WASHINGTON — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Wednesday shrugged off a Democratic dust-up that spilled out into public view on the Senate floor this week, calling it “democracy in action.”

On Tuesday, Klobuchar and Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto clashed with New Jersey Democratic colleague Sen. Cory Booker after he blocked the approval of a package of public safety bills passed out of committee during Police Week.

The party spat had less to do with the substance of the bills and more over how Democrats, who are in the minority in Congress, should best respond to President Donald Trump, who has upended Washington and the federal government.

Klobuchar, Minnesota’s senior senator and a 2020 presidential candidate, said Booker’s concern wasn’t on the substance of the bipartisan bill, but rather on ”a separate funding issue."

“I look forward to working with my Republican cosponsors and Senator Booker on a resolution to this issue,” Klobuchar said in an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune.

A day earlier, Booker objected to passing the public safety grant funding bills, including some he sponsored, saying his party wasn’t fighting back.

“What I am tired of is when the President of the United States of America violates the Constitution and trashes our norms and traditions, and what does the Democratic Party do? Comply? Allow him? Beg for scraps?” Booker asked. “No, I demand justice.”

In protest of the administration, Booker — who also ran for president in 2020 — broke the record this spring for longest floor speech in the chamber’s history. Booker and Klobuchar have also competed for positions within Senate leadership.

In response, Cortez Masto, a Democrat who represents the swing state of Nevada, decried Booker’s blocking of the bills as “just not acceptable,” adding that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

“I agree that President Trump’s impoundment of funding is a serious concern,” Cortez Masto said. “But tacking on a poison pill to this amendment won’t guarantee funding makes it to New Jersey, Nevada or any other states.”

Booker ultimately allowed two bills to go through, including funding for death benefits to the families of retired law enforcement officers. Five bills were upheld, including measures to fund first responder staffing and treatment for officers exposed to dangerous substances.

On Wednesday, Klobuchar was the ranking member at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing, which was quickly convened to press the Trump administration on answers for its plan to relocate thousands of U.S. Department of Agriculture workers from Washington, D.C., to hubs around the country.