Sen. Cory Booker implored fellow officials to be “mindful of what we’re saying” because “words matter” amid a week in the United States in which pipe bombs were mailed to individuals and organizations, black people were executed and 11 Jewish people were slaughtered in a synagogue.
“We need to understand that words matter and that we all need to be mindful of what we’re saying,” Booker told reporters on Sunday.
Booker called on officials to watch their rhetoric after he spoke to a group of New Hampshire Young Democrats on the University of New Hampshire campus, according to NJ.com.
The senator also talked about how the majority of terrorist attacks that have happened since 9/11 have stemmed from right-wing groups and white supremacists. Booker’s comments were even more evocative because he was one of the prominent Democrats sent a pipe bomb last week by an alleged suspect who was an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump.
“A lot of them are using the rhetoric of leaders in this country in their propaganda,” Booker said. “We should be doing so much more to be condemning hatred and to be calling toward life and live and unity in our country.”
Booker also expressed his sorrow after the synagogue shooting in a tweet on Sunday.
“We must counter this hate with love and love’s public face which is justice — tireless work for justice and peace,” he wrote.
“This is a vile act of hatred,” Booker said Sunday of the synagogue shooting.
“Clearly there was individual blame here,” he added. “But shouldn’t this be a moment where leaders call upon all of us to take some responsibility. All of us should be thinking to ourselves, ‘What can we be doing more to be antidote to the rise of hatred in our country?’”