Sens. Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker pick their worst parts of Trump's 'embarrassing' debate performance

Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders
(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/The Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live)

Watching Tuesday night's presidential debate "was painful," Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night's Late Show. "I mean, to see a Fox News commentator have to try to constantly wrestle with the president of the United States just so Joe Biden would have time to speak, it was embarrassing to our country." President Trump acted like he thinks, "Well, Putin doesn't have to go through these things, why do I even have to be here?" he added, "What I liked about Joe Biden is he kept trying to turn it away from the two men on the stage and back to the American people."

"The whole night was just sad" and "our commander in chief was just so ugly," Booker said, but Trump's comments about the Proud Boys alone was "like a dagger to the heart of that American aspiration" and "truly menacing to all that we stand for." Because he didn't just fail to condemn white supremacists, "he said 'stand back and stand by' to the Proud Boys, a right-wing hate organization," Booker said, and they seem to have embraced "those words almost as if they're a license from the president to stand ready in an election to engage."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.