Presidential candidate and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker denied taking a “swipe” at fellow presidential hopeful John Delaney on Tuesday, even though his campaign sent out an email referencing the former congressman.
huge congrats to whoever had Cory Booker as their pick for “which candidate will go negative on John Delaney first” pic.twitter.com/ocCtMIiJpc
— Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) April 16, 2019
Reporters asked Booker about a fundraising email his campaign sent out over the weekend that specifically referenced Delaney’s personal contributions to his campaign without naming him.
“Friend, this weekend, we found out that one of the other Democrats in this race has given over $11 million of his own money to his campaign. Self-funding is something Cory just can’t and would never do,” the email obtained by CNN’s John King read on the air. (RELATED: Here’s What Book Sales Tell Us About Which Presidential Candidates People Care About, And Which They Don’t)
Booker feigned confusion over the email.
Inside Politics with a look at the Booker-Delaney $$ tiff pic.twitter.com/f0xq9S1PPA
— Rebecca Buck (@RebeccaBuck) April 16, 2019
“I’m not even sure what you’re talking about, because again we are not taking swipes at other candidates,” Booker told reporters in Iowa. “The reality is that we need to have a Democratic Party that shows how you run campaigns in this Democratic Party field by respecting people you’re running against, and so I’m going to continue to conduct myself in that manner.” (RELATED: CNN Host Don Lemon Congratulates Sen. Cory Booker On ‘Nice Job’ At Town Hall)
“If I had Booker’s numbers, I’d go negative, too,” Michael Starr Hopkins, a press secretary for the Delaney campaign, told CNN in response.
According to an Emerson Poll that was published on Monday, Booker garnered 2% of those polled with Delaney slightly behind him at 1%.