Cory Booker: “I just want to first thank my colleague from California for stating so plainly about the character of the individual we…”

“I just want to first thank my colleague from California for stating so plainly about the character of the individual we are talking about. We have justifiable disagreements in this body. We have strong-held beliefs in this body. We have real debates and arguments in this body. But it has been generations and generations and generations since there has been violence in this body. I stand with my back toward the Chamber where there was the caning of Sumner during the slavery debates, and a House Member came over and beat a U.S. Senator within an inch of his life. You see, there is this decorum here where we have this mutual respect, and we understand violence is absolutely unacceptable. And if there is anybody that shows that kind of decency and that kind of peace, my colleague from California put it so plainly--Alex Padilla, like many of my colleagues, even across the aisle--he is one of the people of true character here. I think that is why today has hurt so many of us personally is because of what this breach of this body actually means to all of us. We know of dangers of violence in a democracy and the insidiousness that violence presents or that fear of violent reprisal presents. Jefferson said it so eloquently: When people fear their government, there is tyranny. When the government fears [its] people, there is liberty.”