Sen. Cory Booker on the Democrats’ risky shutdown bet
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
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Summary
Democrats are making a gamble that voting against a Republican plan to fund the government will be worth the pain of the current shutdown.
New Jersey’s senior Democratic senator Cory Booker voted against a similar Republican plan to fund the government back in March. And he's been one of the most visible critics of the second Trump administration in the Senate.
Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with Booker about the stakes of the current government shutdown, how long it could go on, and why he says Democrats must “do something” to try to reduce looming hikes in health care costs or risk further alienating their base.
Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff and Josh Carroll, with help from Zoe Cummings. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sam Bair.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.3 | and for our future. |
| 0:28.4 | I'm gonna have a lot of tactics. |
| 0:29.8 | I, for one, am very... |
| 0:31.6 | I stood on the floor for 25 hours. |
| 0:34.0 | I did a sit-in on the steps of the Capitol. |
| 0:36.4 | To what end, though? |
| 0:37.4 | It didn't change President Trump's behavior. |
| 0:39.9 | Oh, I disagree with you in the sense that you have got to find ways with a guy that |
| 0:47.4 | dominates your attention and the attention economy. You have got to find a way to break through. |
| 0:59.7 | As you may already know, that's New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker. |
| 1:04.4 | I sat down in his office this week to talk about how Democrats are trying to break through |
| 1:08.8 | and how they're using the government shutdown as a tactic to do it. |
| 1:13.1 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:17.2 | I'm Kolby Ekowitz. It's Thursday, October 2nd. |
| 1:22.9 | It is day two of the federal government shutdown, and both sides are dug in. |
| 1:29.2 | Democrats are holding out for billions in health care subsidies, and the Trump White House is |
| 1:34.0 | threatening mass layoffs of federal workers. For as long as this lasts, federal workers are |
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