ICYMI: Booker “Takes Command of Room” at Jack Smith Hearing & Calls out Republicans with “Fury In His Truth”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is drawing national praise for his forceful oversight comments during Tuesday's hearing with Special Counsel Jack Smith. Booker's criticism of Republicans for focusing on debunked claims about the 2020 election rather than issues facing Americans today. Insider NJ highlighted that Booker "stood up for former Special Counsel Jack Smith and for the rule of law," while on The Last Word, Lawrence O'Donnell praised Booker's "fury in his truth telling" and said that "Cory Booker deserves to be heard in command of that room again tonight," before concluding, "This is how you do it." Booker called out what he described as a "farce" and "gaslighting" over Republicans' claims that Donald Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election.

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MS NOW
Lawrence O'Donnell on Senator Booker Calling out Republicans: "This Is How You Do It"
September 29, 2026

• Lawrence: "It takes a lot to push Cory Booker to his limits. But when the former Stanford tight end gets there, when Trump Republicans push him and push him and push him some more and they push him there, there is a fury in his truth telling that stops that room and takes command of that room, full command of that room."
• Lawrence: "And Cory Booker deserves to be heard in command of that room again tonight."
• Lawrence: "This is how you do it."

MS NOW
Cory Booker Interview with Jen Paski
September 29, 2026

• Booker: "They're still prosecuting the big lie. They are still doing Trump's bidding. They're choosing Trump over truth and corruption over the Constitution. Not one American cares about this right now. This is their closing argument in the Judiciary Committee, not how we're going to deal with corporate concentration, not how we're going to deal with pharmaceutical companies abusing people."
• Booker: " No, their final closing thing was this stupid gaslighting of the American people that the 2020 election wasn't rightfully decided."

CNN
Cory Booker Interview with Laura Coates
September 29, 2026

• Booker: "They've dragged in the guy that did the investigation, that used mostly Republican witnesses to base his case which got indictments from a grand jury, and they try to railroad him. And I wasn't going to have it. I was going to call it out for what it was and let them know that they are failing the American people by allowing Donald Trump and not holding him accountable, allowing him to raise their gas prices, raise their food prices, and take away their health insurance."
• Booker: "This is an outrage. And I think the insult is that we had this prosecutor who went and followed the evidence, got the convictions, and then as soon as Donald Trump becomes president, he decides to persecute the prosecutors, firing everybody that even touched that case from FBI agents and other career professionals."

Insider NJ
Booker Defends Jack Smith (and More) at Judiciary Committee Hearing
By Max Pizzaro
September 29, 2026

• At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this afternoon, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) stood up for former Special Counsel Jack Smith and for the rule of law.
• "People like you," Booker continued, directing his remarks at Smith, "who stood up, thrown into a hate machine where it's not even safe to go to the grocery store right now, where [Republicans are] pushing a false narrative that somehow Donald Trump is the victim."
• "We have people who repeat the big lie, who can't even tell the truth," Booker railed. "I cannot sit here and let your reputation further be besmirched. This is not fair to you or your family. ...dragging in a prosecutor leader to try to perpetrate
• "We who were here on Jan. 6th remember our evacuated colleagues running for safety and a crowd chanting for the death of the vice president of the United States to stop the peaceful transfer of power," said Booker. "Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. ...His own justice department told him there was no evidence of widespread fraud sufficient to challenge the outcome."

NBC News
Sen. Booker accuses Republicans of 'gaslighting' during Jack Smith's hearing
September 29, 2026

• Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., accuses his Republican colleagues of "gaslighting" the American public by continuing to perpetuate false claims that President Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election. His remarks come during former special counsel Jack Smith's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

MS NOW
Cory Booker on Lawrence O'Donnell
September 30, 2026

• Lawrence: It struck me when you, as I see it there, just couldn't take it anymore because you really are someone who has more patience and ability to kind of go with this, to deal with this stuff. Was there a moment, was there a moment in that hearing where you just said, this is a farce?
• Booker: The hearing itself, that this was the last time the Judiciary Committee would meet until after the elections. There are some substantive possibilities that we could do things to help people.
• Booker: It is unacceptable that we have things we could and should be doing, but we're not.
• Booker: I was very, very aware that there were a lot of people that don't get the seat that New Jersey gave me that felt like just yelling at a Republican Party that has been so complicit, that it has been so enabling to a guy they know is taking this, this nation into a financial catastrophe.