[King:] All right, here's the question, we report, you decide. Just plain honesty or politically calculated honesty. Here's New Jersey's Senator Cory Booker speaking to David Axelrod for his podcast, the AXE FILES. Giving what some would call a revealing answer about his political ambitions and what others might say as a clever disguise for his 2020 intentions.
[Sen. Cory Booker , New Jersey:] I don't know what the future is going to bring, I'm not making predictions. But I want to unleash the fullness of who I am right now and I want to call out injustice where I see it. I think that politicians make a terrible mistake if they're thinking about their aspirations for another office because I think it undermines their integrity where they are. If I start thinking about the future like that or engaging in that stuff, I think it would make me lesser of a senator.
[Kucinich:] I think that's a very good way of saying I'm focus on being the senator from New Jersey right now which we've heard from other people who may or may not
[King:] B? We have a B here. I hear some disagreements Mr. Yang?
[Yang:] No, I would go along. I think that anytime a politician says something like that, they don't just talk off at the top of their heads. They've thought this through and I think that this is sort of a calculated statement.
[King:] But the flip side is, I love my job as senator from New Jersey but I think everyday in the shower, at breakfast, in traffic, while I'm voting on the Senate floor, about running for president. He can't say that even if it's true.
[Colvin:] I'm not allowed and now we'll also go with B here. I think that's what they say when they're running.
[King:] Except, he's thinking in traffic
[Viser:] It was a longer win I mean, we've tried multiple times with Elizabeth Warren with a similar question. And he gave a longer answer than she does. You know, she tends to just ignore it all together and
[King:] And he says in the same interview, I'm a guy who's going to criticize policies that frankly in a lot of states that are important for presidential elections would find that very much of a threat. So he does acknowledge in the interview with David Axelrod that he's probably left of many of those states out there that has views on issues are, not maybe not going to win you on some of the big presidential battlegrounds. But there's only one way to find out.
[Viser:] This is also a major question for Democrats right now. You know, I mean, there is a there starting to be a realization that Trump is very vulnerable, but there's nobody on that horizon that you look to as the frontrunner.
[King:] Senator Warren just spent time with Senator McCaine in Afghanistan
[Viser:] Well, she got some made for T.V. images from that trip.
[King:] All politics is local