Cory Booker

As mayor of Newark, New Jersey, I was blown away by how minority women in particular are doing such an extraordinary job in our country of starting businesses.

I want to thank you for being here. It means a lot to serve your country and to step forward and be willing to make the kind of sacrifices you are going to have to make in this position, so I am grateful for your patriotism.

I hope that you will be one of those independent voices, as you were during the campaign, that will speak truth to power no matter what the consequences.

Access to contraception is also a universal human right that can dramatically affect the lives of women and children in some of the world's poorest countries.

I am grateful for your very strong, steadfast statements in terms of the support of Israel.

Security for Israel is something that is of critical import to me.

You showed grace and dignity in dealing with the tragedy, and then you showed tremendous courage in removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse.

I appreciate your talking about environmental justice and mentioning that.

It seems to me the theme in your work is not federalism and States' rights, but deregulation in siding with polluters against the environment and public health standards.

As soon as you did this so-called historic agreement that set it back, you basically turned to the EPA with a rule, with the power of law of the Supreme Court and said, OK, back off my corporations.

I just want to clarify that it is a contradiction.

I would be very happy with the agreement that it seems that you, you are the down-State.

I really do appreciate him adding to the line of inquiry I am having, he referred to me as a friend.

I think it is important that we note that, and I appreciate the number of rounds that you are doing.

In my next round, I will go back into this, because the documents don't seem consistent at all with what you are saying.

Just to recap all of this, because it is a lot, 20 years, Oklahoma's EPA approved a .037 phosphorus standard more than two decades in the making.

This was critical because under the Supreme Court decision, now Oklahoma had a water quality standard approved by the EPA that was now enforceable against up-States like Arkansas.

In 2003, to give more teeth to this--this goes to what you were saying about municipalities--it created phosphorus limits for municipal discharges.

I think that is an important point, yes.

I want to jump into one of the areas that you said is a principal part of one of your achievements.

Clearly asthma is triggered and caused by air pollutants. Clearly there is an air pollution problem.

Do you know how many kids in Oklahoma, roughly, have asthma?

It seems clear to me that obviously the fact pattern on representing polluters is clear, that you worked very hard on behalf of these industries.

So each of these lawsuits that I just went through and that we analyzed, all of them challenge attempts by the EPA to reduce air pollution.

I am responsible for protecting the welfare of Oklahoma citizens.