2020 hopeful Booker says racism a national security issue

Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker says racism and white supremacy are “issues of national security.”

The New Jersey senator doesn’t mention US President Donald Trump by name in South Carolina but uses some of the president’s own words to call out the racism Booker says underlies much of the violence in the country, including recent attacks that killed 31 in El Paso and Dayton.

Booker says white supremacy “allows political leaders to promise to ‘build the wall’ — while not building hospitals, schools, or infrastructure.” Trump has pushed to build a wall along the Mexico border.

Booker maakes his address in the sanctuary of Mother Emanuel AME, a historic South Carolina church where nine Bible study participants were slain in a 2015 racist attack.

— AP