Sen. Cory Booker And Julián Castro Call Out Potential All-White Democratic Debate Stage
Senator Cory Booker is “angry” and Julián Castro is calling it a “double standard” as the next Democratic presidential debate could possibly be all white candidates, following Kamala Harris’ decision to drop out of the race.
“I’m a little angry, I have to say, that we started with one of the most diverse fields in our history, giving people pride,” Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), who is among the nonwhite presidential candidates who have yet to qualify for this month’s debate, told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Tuesday night. “And it’s a damn shame now that the only African American woman in this race, who has been speaking to issues that need to be brought up, is now no longer in it.”
While Harris did qualify to join fellow Democratic presidential hopefuls on the debate stage on December 19, she couldn’t continue due to a lack of funding.
“I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign,” she wrote in a letter to supporters on Tuesday (Dec. 3). “And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.”
The remaining nonwhite Democratic candidates -- Booker, Julián Castro, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard -- have not yet qualified to join the four white men and two white women who have, which includes former vice president Joe Biden, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, billionaire Tom Steyer, and Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar, the Washington Post reports.
Gabbard and Yang both need just one more good poll to qualify, but Booker and Castro haven’t hit 4 percent in any of the required polls, the Washington Post reports.
On Tuesday, after Harris’ announcement, Castro condemned the media’s narrative on “electability.”
“The way the media has treated Kamala Harris has been something else,” he said in a statement to the press, which was tweeted by his national press secretary, Sawyer Hackett, following the California Senator’s announcement of her campaign end on Tuesday (Dec. 3).
Castro added, “They’ve held her to a different standard, a double standard [that] has been grossly unfair and unfortunate.”
He also tweeted on his own account about his dismay with the media’s “flawed formula” and commented on how the next Democratic debate in December won’t show the party’s diversity.
“The media’s flawed formula for ‘electability’ has pushed aside women and candidates of color,” he wrote. “Our party’s diversity is our strength, and it’s a shame that we’re headed for a December debate without a single person of color.”
Others share the concern and disappointment Booker and Castro have voiced.
After Harris officially ended her campaign, one journalist tweeted, “White supremacy is not just a Fox News problem, folks.”
