I want to remind you.
You were here before.
Before you became senator.
And let's just show everybody how good I am at what I do.
OK.
And I understand that you turned down--
I think President Obama offered you a position,
and you turned it down to stay where you are,
and I think that's admirable.
But then when your term is up, you
pass the torch to someone else, and you become senator,
and then you become president.
I appreciate you--
I appreciate that.
Think about it.
I [INAUDIBLE] I mean--
I-- you seem to have a gift of prophecy.
Would you like to tell me what I'm going
to do with the rest of my life?
Yeah, oh well, the first one's free.
And then you gotta pay.
But I see good things for you.
You're a good guy.
You're a smart guy.
So you're running for president, and how do you
set yourself apart from all of these people running?
Because there are a lot among your friends.
A lot of great people running.
I have a very different pathway, I think we all do.
I am one of those guys that has run
to some of our most difficult challenges, and was a mayor,
had to be a chief executive of a big city at the time going
through a lot of difficulties.
But we collectively in that community really
turned things around for Newark's fortune.
And then my theme.
I know there's a lot of folks who
want to fight fire with fire.
I ran a fire department, I don't think that's a good strategy.
I'm appealing to the ideal of reviving civic grace,
and bringing people together.
We have so much common cause in this country,
a lot of common pain, and we really
need I think leaders that are going
to call us-- not divide us-- but call us back
to a sense of common purpose.
Yeah, I agree with that.
Yes, because there are a lot of people who are angry right now,
and the country is very, very divided.
And I think we do need to bring everybody together, and remind
us all that we are, this is basically the same inside.
We all want the same things.
There is no you're wrong and I'm right.
But people want toughness.
And you seem really sweet and kind, which is a great thing.
Right.
But when people say you're not tough enough,
what do you say about that?
You know, there was an Oscar nominated documentary
that I was in called Street Fight about me coming up
through Newark against the-- one of the toughest
political machines there are, and we
showed that you can fight the toughest of fights, and win.
But people make this mistake where
they confuse being strong with being mean, or being tough
with being cruel.
You don't have to let yourself be pulled down,
that you go through I think moral vandalism when it
comes to your highest ideals.
And at a time in this country where
we're seeing toxic Twitter trolling,
and trash talking, I think the best antidote to that,
the best thing that's going to win against that,
is not fighting darkness with darkness,
but is bringing light and decency
and grace back to our politics.
[APPLAUSE]
Yes.
Speaking of tweets, and Twitter, this past weekend
our president I think tweeted more in a short amount of time
than he's ever tweeted before.
I mean, it was an enormous amount of tweets.
And some people are saying he's losing his mind,
that he's really losing his mind.
What do you say about that, and what tweet upset you the most?
Well, look, I think what we say about other people often
says more about us than it does to who we're talking about.
And that is not just a constitutional position,
the Chief Executive of our country.
It's also a moral platform.
And at a time that our country needs
redeeming in terms of our connections,
we have a president that just seems to continue
to want to be doing demeaning.
And I think you judge a leader not
by how much they push people down,
but how much they lift people up.
And so those tweets to me were indicative
of a serious problem.
And they are-- you know there's a Stanford
Research has shown that kindness and decency goes viral.
But if you do one kind act witnessed by others,
it actually moves multiple degrees of separation.
This person studies this.
Unfortunately it's the same thing with cruelty.
And so what do we want sort of from the highest
offices in lands.
Evidence.
And so when you have a guy who--
I knew John McCain.
He was one of those people, when I first
came to the Senate, that called me to his office,
sat me down, and gave me incredible advice,
not partisan at all, but calling on me to be a statesman.
He said this Senate has too much particularistic smallness.
He said, I want you to be a larger senator.
Be somebody who sets a tone, sets an energy.
Was just a great talk.
He's a guy whose office was like a museum to heroism.
I mean literally, you see his lifeless body
being pulled out by--
the Vietnamese sent him the picture of him
when his plane crashed, and he was
put into a prison, where he was tortured.
And to have a president, who is the Commander in Chief
over so many courageous soldiers that
are serving for us, men and women, gay, straight
and transgender, tons of soldiers.
To see the way he talks about a war hero who is dead now.
To me that is almost repugnant, or unacceptable.
It was pretty horrible.
Yes.
And McCain-- I agree, we had McCain on the show,
and what a great guy he was.
I mean I just met him one time, and we loved him here.
He was amazing.
And look, I disagreed with him a lot,
but there was always a sweetness with him
that when you meet him on the Senate floor,
he could be tough with you, but he was one of those guys
that for me was a model of what can be.
Yeah.
Yes, he was.
All right, we'll take a break.
More with Cory Booker after this.
We're back with Senator Cory Booker, who is running--
Can I just thank you?
I want to interrupt you right now.
I think that what you do about-- there's a saying I love,
that you can't lead the people if you don't love the people.
And we're talking about politics,
but you really are a leader for the spirit of goodness,
kindness and decency.
And I want to say this.
I want to say this in this way.
I have a-- patriotism is love of country,
but you cannot love your country unless you love your fellow
countrymen and women.
And that love that you give to me
is patriotic in a powerful way, and we
need more of that spirit.
So thank you for what you do.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
I understand what you're saying, but I will not
be your vice president.
I am busy with the show.
Thank you.
So it came out recently that you're
dating Rosario Dawson, right?
Yes.
And so that was something that you
were trying to keep very private,
and then she opened her big mouth, and--
No, no.
No, she blabbed it.
She got TMZed.
No, what happened?
She was visiting me in DC, and then she left to the airport,
and she got ambushed at the airport.
Right.
I suddenly get this little video from her, saying I got TMZed.
I don't have makeup on, this and this and that.
But she knew that it was.
But she was wonderful, and she's just an incredible human being.
Yeah.
I think it's great.
I mean, it's wonderful that y'all are dating,
and I know it's hard, because she's going to be watched
and everything that she does, everything you do.
People are watching you.
Yeah, and it's-- as our relationship grows,
it's difficult. But she is just a deeply,
deeply soulful person, and has taught me a lot of lessons
about love already, and that sometimes you showed
the greatest strength when you make yourself vulnerable,
and she's really--
has this nurturing spirit that's made me more courageous,
not just in the love that I project
and want to see in our country, but I think even
on our personal relationships, to love more fearlessly.
So I'm very, very blessed to be with somebody that makes--
That's really sweet.
That makes me a better person.
That's really sweet.
So now that would be an amazing wedding
to have in the White House.
I mean, if you go in single, and then
you have a wedding in the White House.
I mean, we would watch.
That would be-- that would be like our royal wedding.
It would be great.
So you're saying if Rosario and I get there, wait.
Don't do the marriage before.
For sure.
Yeah, wait and have a big thing, and do it--
yeah and sweeps, and it would be really important.
Would you help preside over the wedding?
I would do-- Yes, I'd be a big part of that.
Yes.
Is that promise?
Yes.
All right.
Here's what I want you to promise right now,
because you mentioned this, and I
want to know what you really mean it.
You said, regardless if you get the nomination, if you don't
get the nomination, you're going to make
sure a woman gets in the White House one way or another.
President or vice president.
We saw-- first of all, I wanted there to be a woman president
in 2016, and it's unfortunate there wasn't.
But look at the people running right now.
We have incredibly talented, capable women and men.
We have an openly gay candidate, black candidates.
It's just this incredible diversity.
We should be a ticket that reflects
the diversity of this country.
A gender diversity, race diversity,
and if I am elected as the nominee,
I'm going to make sure there is gender diversity on the ticket.
[APPLAUSE]
So there would be a woman vice president?
So you're a good politician.
You zigzag.
I'm not trying to zigzag.
You did not answer my question.
I think I just answered your question.
No, you didn't.
There will be-- yes.
There will be gender diversity on the ticket.
Yes.
And you are saying you're not interested whatsoever.
I'm saying I'm busy.
You're too busy.
I understand that.
I would never want to be in politics.
I don't know what you're thinking.
Well, but I will tell you this.
We all are in politics.
That space.
Democracy is not a spectator sport.
One of the things we're suffering from I
think in our country is, the opposite of justice
is not injustice, it's often inaction, apathy
and indifference.
We have low voter turnouts for a democracy this vibrant.
We have politicians that on issues ranging from gun safety
to college debt, that they aren't
doing what the majority of their pop-- their voters want to do.
And so whether you say you're a politician or not,
the reality is we all have to get involved
in this civic space, especially in a moral moment like this,
where so much is on the line.
I hope all of us views ourselves as agents for this country
to make it better, and make it a more perfect union.
I agree with you.
That's fantastic.
All right.
We will be right back.
Cory Booker, everybody.
Hi, I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel
so you can see more awesome videos, like videos
of me getting scared, or saying embarrassing things,
like ball peen hammer.
And also some videos of Ellen and other celebrities.
If you're into that sort of thing.
[SCREAMING]
[BLEEP]
God!
[BLEEP]