Cory Booker says Dems need to 'get back in the huddle' after blowing a big play

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Manchester, N.H. (AP) — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker on Friday took his frustration with the deal ending the government shutdown to the home field of two fellow Democrats who helped broker the compromise.

Booker leaned into his past as a college football player when asked about Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, who were among the seven Democrats and one independent who broke ranks after concluding that Republicans would not bend on extending health care tax credits under the Affordable Care Act.

“That play is done,” Booker said at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, where a large photograph of Shaheen and Hassan hung on the wall behind him. “I’m not happy about it. I think we lost yardage, and the kind of yardage we lost is not a game, it’s our health care.”

Though he earlier used a baseball analogy in saying both Republicans and Democrats need to be courageous in “calling balls and strikes in their own party,” he stuck with football in declining to further criticize the New Hampshire senators.

“When you make a big mistake on a play, get back in the huddle and tighten your chinstrap because we have work to do,” said Booker, who was scheduled to speak Friday night at a party fundraiser dinner along with Shaheen and Hassan.

The compromise signed Wednesday night by President Donald Trump funds three annual spending bills and extends the rest of government funding through Jan. 30. Republican senators promised to hold a vote by mid-December to extend the health care subsidies, but there is no guarantee of success.

Booker’s visit followed a similar trip by Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who joked that he was playing a familiar role as Booker’s warm-up act when he spoke in the same venue Wednesday. Both senators were warmly received.

Murphy made a point of saying he wasn’t calling out any fellow Democrats by name in criticizing the deal to end the shutdown. But he said showing Americans who Trump really is will involve pain and sacrifice, and he urged his caucus to learn from leaders of the Civil Rights Movement who endured beatings and jail.

“What they were trying to do is show the regime that their willingness to endure pain was greater than the regime’s willingness to impose it,” he said.

Democrats need to have tough conversations about doing better, he said.

“You know those families where all the problems and difficult stuff is just buried? It comes back up and bites you in the ass,” he said. “So let’s have at it, let’s talk about it.”

Given New Hampshire’s tradition of hosting the earliest presidential primaries, appearances from out-of-state politicians almost always raise questions about their future ambitions. Democrats have not yet set their primary schedule for 2028.

Asked if he plans to run for president, Murphy demurred in a slightly different way than some others, saying he’s focused on saving democracy.

“What a fool any of us would be planning to run in an election that may not happen,” he said.

Booker, who ran for president in 2020 but dropped out before the first votes, said only that he’d be in New Hampshire in 2028 “no matter what.” Like Murphy, he also compared the troubles of today to the Civil Rights Movement.

“You can’t have great courage without great fear. You can’t have great hope unless you stare unflinchingly at great despair,” he said.