Taxing Cory Booker's Patience

April 5, 2026·1 hr 17 min·5 clips

Cory Booker calls Netanyahu 'a horrible person who enabled October 7th' and says Israel should jail him.

The episode opens with host John Lovett introducing a conversation with Senator Cory Booker that ran nearly twice the allotted time. Lovett notes they discussed the Iran war, AIPAC, Israel, and Booker's tax proposal to raise the standard deduction to $75,000. The interview begins with a lighthearted exchange about Booker's recent marriage and generational differences with his younger wife. The conversation turns serious with Pam Bondi's firing as attorney general, which Booker uses to argue the Justice Department has become an instrument of Trump's personal vendettas, investigating the Fed chair, senators, and approving corporate mergers without scrutiny. Booker warns that replacing Bondi with a more competent loyalist could make the department's politicization more effective and dangerous. On Iran, Booker describes Trump's address to the nation as the first public accounting after more than a month of military operations, calling it a violation of the constitutional war powers framework. He invokes Colin Powell's pottery barn rule — you break it, you buy it — to argue Trump has no plan for the aftermath. Booker says Trump's simultaneous cuts to Medicaid while spending tens of billions on the war represent a moral contradiction. He describes Senate Democrats forcing War Powers Resolution votes as a tool to compel public debate. Booker warns that Trump has publicly expressed interest in taking Cuba and Greenland, arguing the Iran precedent enables future unilateral military action. On Israel, Booker stops short of calling Netanyahu a war criminal by title but says he is 'a horrible person' who knew Qatar was funding Hamas and allowed it, and that he hopes Israelis vote Netanyahu out and then jail him. Booker argues that Israeli security and Palestinian justice are inseparable goals. Lovett raises the question of whether Booker would appear on streamer Hasan Piker's platform, and Booker says he had never heard of Piker until days before the interview and his communications director only showed him the most outrageous clips. Booker articulates a rule he lives by: you do not have to attend every argument you are invited to. He describes choosing his engagements based on where he can have genuine dialogue rather than performative conflict. Booker shares a detailed story about building a bipartisan coalition with Senator Jim Inhofe to pass an amendment protecting educational services for homeless and foster children, which became law. He credits Bill Bradley's advice to meet every Republican colleague for dinner. Booker reveals that classified briefings show foreign adversaries operating warehouses of people dedicated to inflaming divisions on U.S. social media, including within the Democratic Party, and argues this internal division is a greater threat to democracy than external military threats. He connects this to the Israel-Palestine debate, noting that some of the most divisive online content is being seeded by foreign actors. Booker closes with reflections on gun violence in Newark, noting that only one shooting during his mayoral tenure involved a legally purchased gun, and argues that universal background checks — supported by most gun owners and NRA members in polling — remain blocked by political dysfunction.

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Big money, political power, and a steady case for meeting opponents as people.

The episode takes a sharp look at big philanthropy and the power it can keep in donor hands, even when community needs are pressing. It makes the issue concrete by following who gets to decide where money goes and how wealthy donors can bend public policy.

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You want big-money philanthropy and a brisk Cory Booker conversation that actually goes somewhere.

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