Booker sees racism behind Trump's attacks on himself and Harris

Trump invoked Booker's name in a tweet last week in which he said low-income housing would invade neighborhoods of suburban housewives "in a bigger form, with Corey Booker in charge" if Joe Biden is elected president. Trump has also promoted a false and racist conspiracy theory suggesting that Harris, who is Black and South Asian American, is ineligible to serve as vice president and president. He's also called her "nasty," "the meanest," and "a mad woman," playing into racist and sexist stereotypes of Black women.

In a pair of interviews on CNN, Booker said Trump invoked him because Trump believes he would appear as a "scary" Black person.

"Well, look, I grew up in the suburbs but I'm so honored that for the last -- I started my career representing the great city of Newark, New Jersey, a majority minority city. That I'm the fourth Black person ever probably elected to the United States Senate. Yeah, I'm sure he knows that and I'm sure that was one of the reasons he evoked my name thinking that I would be a scary person," Booker told CNN's John Berman on "New Day" Monday.

Booker also told Berman the President's messaging is an "attempt for him to be a demagogue to try to scare people in the suburbs," adding American's will not fall for "his fear mongering, for his divisiveness, and for his bigotry."

On Sunday, Booker called Trump a "bully in the playground that is about to get knocked out" over his attacks against Harris.

"This is something I think that many Americans know, I know for my family, is when you have African American women who are rising up in positions that there have never been African American women in before that people are going to viciously attack them on gender and race," he told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

The former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate also said the attacks from Trump about his colleague and friend reflects the President's "demeaning and degrading" language he has used about Black Americans in the past, calling it not surprising.

"What I don't think Trump understands is that Kamala Harris has been fighting this fight her entire career rising to positions where she was the first African American woman in time and time again," he said. "So if there's anybody that's ready for this kind of mess, it's Kamala Harris. And so Donald Trump can pick a fight if he wants. But he is the proverbial bully in the playground that is about to get knocked out when he steps up against this dynamic duo that will beat him in November." Booker was referring to the presumptive Joe Biden-Harris Democratic ticket for the November election.

Harris, 55, made history last week when she was chosen as Biden's running mate, becoming the first Black and South Asian woman to appear on a presidential ticket, but this wasn't the first time the she broke a glass ceiling. In California, Harris was the first woman, and first Black woman, to serve as the state's top law enforcement official. She was the first Black woman from California to serve in the US Senate, and second from any state, after Illinois' Carol Moseley Braun.

The daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, Harris was born in Oakland, California, making her eligible to be vice president.

Fact check: Trump promotes another birther lie, this time about Kamala Harris

Trump on Thursday would not definitively say whether Harris met the requirements to serve as president or vice president, saying he heard on "social media" that Harris could be ineligible. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said in a separate interview with Tapper on Sunday that he accepts the fact that Harris is eligible to serve as vice president and president.

On Saturday during a news conference from his Bedminster golf clun in New Jersey, Trump said he would not be "pursuing" questions about Harris' eligibility, but did not dismiss the conspiracy theories as false.

Harris responded to Trump's attacks earlier Sunday, saying she expects the Trump campaign to "engage in dirty tactics," but she is ready for it.

"They're going to engage in an attempt to distract from the real issues that are impacting the American people. And I expect that they will engage in dirty tactics. And this is going to be a knockdown, drag-out. And we're ready," Harris told TheGrio in an interview, when asked how Trump promoting birther conspiracies signals the tactics his campaign will use.

Booker also on Sunday defended Harris's criminal justice record during her time as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general that has been criticized by activists.

"There are always going to be critics, but let the work that she's done speak for her," Booker told Tapper, mentioning he and Harris' collaboration on bills such as the Justice in Policing Act. "As a guy that has been in the trenches with her on every major issue relating to everything from policing to reentry, she has been one of the great voices in the Senate, helping us to gain ground and move ahead."