Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) asserted on Sunday that Iran perceives President Donald Trump as “the biggest loser with egg on his face” following Trump’s signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran last week. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Booker responded to host Garrett Haake’s question about whether Trump deserves credit for attempting to end the war rather than escalating it.
“That’s like ... literally an arsonist starting a fire and getting credit for running out of the burning building,” the senator said. “This president has led this nation into a disaster. We have surrendered our power. We have capitulated to the enemy. And they now are mocking us. Look at everything that’s coming out of [Iran] from their internal dialogue all the way to what they’re saying publicly.”
Allegations of Mockery and Surrender
Booker alleged that Iran knows they have “won this” conflict. “And they know Donald Trump is perhaps, on the world stage right now, the biggest loser with egg on his face. We need to curtail this chaotic, corrupt and cruel president. We need to have checks and balances on his power,” he continued.
The senator also criticized Congressional Republicans, accusing them of allowing Trump to do “everything he wanted to do.” He added, “And now they’re crying foul because they don’t like the result. Shame on Congress. It’s time we get a Congress that will stand up to this president.”
Carville’s Praise Sparks Booker’s Response
Booker’s remarks came after Haake played a clip of Democratic strategist James Carville saying Americans should “give Trump credit where credit is due” regarding the Iran war. In the clip, Carville stated, “He did what Lyndon Johnson did not do in Vietnam, just get out. I think the best thing Biden ever did was just leave Afghanistan. And I’ll give Trump credit. He saw this thing was going the wrong way. And he just quit and got out. And sometimes you got to do that.”
Booker, who voted eight times to end the war, was asked if he supports Trump’s memorandum with Iran. “Yeah, I’m proud to be leading the effort to stop Donald Trump from leading our country into further and further disaster,” he replied. “But the way he is trying to bring us out of this war not only speaks to the failures of the war in total, but it also speaks in a bipartisan way to how bad of a leader he is. When you have Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and progressives, all coming out talking about capitulation, surrender, catastrophe, you know how bad this deal is.”
Economic and Strategic Criticisms
Booker accused Trump of letting Iran obtain “all of the benefits” and “literally billions and billions of dollars” in the deal while Americans suffer financially. “And America continues to hurt and see the losses from the $100 billion we’ve spent in the war to every American citizen seeing their costs skyrocket. This has been a cataclysmic failure of his making,” he said.
He labeled Trump’s deal an “abject surrender.” “This is a guy who said he’s a great negotiator. But right now, Iran has billions and billions of dollars of benefits. It’s almost as if American dollars, American resources are now going to be used to help rebuild Iran while we are continuing to carry the bill for it,” Booker added.
Commander in Chief Under Fire
Later in the interview, Booker described America as having a “disaster for a commander in chief” in Trump, “who’s leaving us with less and less good choices.” He concluded, “What the world needs now is leadership. But from our Middle East allies to our NATO allies, I’m hearing over and over again, ‘Your president is a danger to the world.’ And obviously we at home are paying the cost of that.”
