Senator Paul meeting supporters in New Jersey — at Gran Centurions Clubhouse.
Rand Paul mocks Cory Booker
by ALEXANDER BURNS | 9/11/13 11:16 PM EDT
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul took a dim view of Newark Mayor Cory Booker on the eve of a planned trip to New Jersey to stump against the Democratic Senate candidate.
Explaining his decision to campaign for Republican nominee Steve Lonegan on Friday, Paul jabbed at Booker as a politician with “an imaginary friend with imaginary problems” — an allusion to stories Booker has told about a Newark drug lord named “T-Bone,” whom he has said he befriended.
Booker has described “T-Bone” as an “archetype” of Newark, and according to the conservative National Review the Democrat has told at least one associate that “T-Bone” is a composite figure.
“If Cory will introduce me to T-Bone when I get there, I’d love to meet T-Bone. If T-Bone’s not real, maybe we need to get Mr. Booker to talk about real problems,” Paul told POLITICO in an interview.
The senator described Lonegan, who is far behind Booker in the polls for next month’s special election, as a solid conservative and “defender of the Fourth Amendment” who impressed Paul during a visit to Washington over the summer.
Booker spokesman Kevin Griffis responded to Paul’s comments with a broadside at Lonegan, saying that the former Bogota mayor would “raise taxes on the working and middle classes and privatize Social Security, and he even opposed Hurricane Sandy aid.
“As mayor and as a leader of the Tea Party in New Jersey, Mr. Lonegan has only proven that he cares about the plight of the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,” Griffis said.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/cory-booker-mocked-by-rand-paul-96689.html#ixzz2erAFXqEf
