‘I wish our president would say that’: Cory Booker thanks Barrett for condemning white supremacy in confirmation hearing

Sen. Cory Booker took a hit at President Trump in his line of questioning for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett in the second day of her confirmation hearings.

The question the New Jersey Democrat posed to Barrett was whether she condemned white supremacy, to which she responded, “Yes.”

“Thank you. I am glad to see that you said that,” Booker said. “I wish our president would say that so resolutely and unequivocally as well, but we are at a time [where] Americans are literally fearful because their president cannot do that in the resolute manner in which you did. I am sorry that that question even had to be asked at this time.”

Trump came under fire by critics during the first presidential debate, when he did not directly condemn white supremacy when pushed on it by Fox News Sunday host and moderator Chris Wallace as well as his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.

The president later condemned white supremacists in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity.

“I condemn the KKK. I condemn all white supremacists. I condemn the Proud Boys,” Trump said. “I don’t know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing, but I condemn that.”

Barrett is facing questioning by Republican and Democratic lawmakers over her judicial philosophy and experience. If confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, she will need a simple majority vote by the full Senate to earn a place on the Supreme Court.

Barrett was nominated by Trump to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September after complications with metastatic pancreatic cancer.