Booker on Biden’s ‘bold’ policy agenda, intellectual curiosity

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• Judy Woodruff:

  Senator Cory Booker challenged Joe Biden for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination during the primary, but, tonight, he will tell the country why he supports his former rival.

  And Senator Booker joins us now from Newark.

  Senator Booker, so good to see you again.

  Let me ask you about this convention. What do you think about it? You were there four years ago. There was a lot of excitement on the part of Democrats, but it didn't turn out so well.

  What's different this year?

• Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.:

  Well, clearly, a global pandemic and an unconventional convention as a result.

  But there's something actually really beautiful, I have found, in that the panorama of America we're seeing is even more spectacular. And the people you're able to weave in to the narrative are really touching.

  And so, from listening to an incredible woman who operated an elevator and saw Joe Biden's just common decency, to even, when he was nominated, the way we went around the United States of America, including to our territories, I tell you, it was very emotional and very powerful.

• Judy Woodruff:

  I want to ask you about the platform, and one of the really interesting things, many interesting things, you were talking about during the primary, so-called baby bonds, where you would give $1,000 to every family, to every baby, build on the savings, especially for those who are less advantaged.

  That did not end up in the platform. Is that something you have been lobbying Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on?

• Sen. Cory Booker:

  Well, to Joe's credit, I was really impressed with him on the campaign trail, that he actually paid attention to the policies of his competitors.

  He even talked to me about — specifically about baby bonds when we were backstage during one of the debates. And this is what I love about Joe Biden, which is probably an aspect of him that doesn't get as much attention, but he is really intellectually curious, looking for good ideas.

  And he put together a group to meet of, where are progressives from our party and more centrists of our party got together and put together a list of ideas, and baby bonds made that list. And I was very encouraged by that.

  And so I'm actually hopeful that we can do some big ideas that can help level the economic playing field.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Senator, the first three nights of this convention have featured, I think it's fair to say — has really celebrated diversity in America, whether by race, by LGBTQ. You just think, across the board, there have been — by gender, immigrants, it's been a very moving presentation.

  But, for years, we have heard analysts looking at Democratic Party, certainly since the last election, say, what about the appeal to working-class voters, especially white working-class voters, in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, which Donald Trump took away from the Democrats four years ago?

  What about those voters? And what are they hearing from this convention?

• Sen. Cory Booker:

  I talk to union leaders all the time, was on the phone with one today.

  And they know that they have been duped by a president who made a lot of promises that he did not follow through on. We have so many Americans from all backgrounds that are working union jobs. And this is a president that hasn't even been able to get an infrastructure bill done, not to mention his outright assault on the right to organize, as you see the Republican Party continuing to push right-to-work states, continuing to fight against collective bargaining, continue to hang out the pensions of a lot of these unions.

  There is a clear understanding right now that, if you're a working-class American — and I might be talking about this a little bit tonight — if you're a worker, that we are seeing the wealth gap grow, the middle class shrink, poverty persist, and that we really need to have — at the center of our national agenda is working people.

  And that includes people from all backgrounds, but even just the simple idea that people should make a living wage. And you and I both know that the minimum wage is now below the poverty line. It wasn't like that when it started in the 1960s, that a lot of good jobs in the past, even a janitorial job, the average one was a middle-class job back in the day. Now it's not.

  You see just these encroachments onto working people, where they just find themselves not being able to afford rent or child care or prescription drugs.

  Many people are just feeling like they're in economic insecurity. And this is a — Joe has an agenda, really a bold one, to make work pay, to make this nation be a nation that centers work and the middle class and the growth of unions to reverse some of these disastrous trends we have been seeing going on since the 1980s.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Senator Cory Booker, we will be listening for you tonight.

  Thank you so much.

• Sen. Cory Booker:

  Thank you. It's always good to be on.