Zach Braff Defends Cory Booker After Trump Attacks New Jersey Senator: ‘One of the Kindest Men I’ve Ever Met’

Andrew ShusterSep 1st, 2020, 1:53 pm
 
Zach Braff Cory Booker

Angela Weiss/Getty Images, Robyn Beck/Getty Images

New Jersey native Zach Braff defended Sen. Cory Booker after President Donald Trump attacked the politician during his Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham.

Trump scoffed at the notion of Joe Biden appointing Booker as Housing and Urban Development secretary, prompting support from Braff, who shared a personal anecdote involving his late father and the New Jersey senator.

On Monday night, Trump spoke out against building low income housing in upscale neighborhoods, claiming that doing so would cause crime in safe communities.

“There is a level of violence that you don’t see. So you have this beautiful community in the suburbs, including women, right? Women, they want security,” said Trump. “I ended where they build low income housing projects right in the middle of your neighborhood. I ended it. If Biden gets in, he already said it’s going to go at a much higher rate than ever before and you know who’s going to be in charge of it? Cory Booker. That’s gonna be nice, ok.”

Braff, who shares a friendship with Booker and often speaks about his pride in New Jersey, tweeted in support of the senator.

“Cory Booker came to my father’s hospital bedside and held his hand,” the former Scrubs star wrote on Tuesday. “They spoke for an hour in soft voices because my father was very weak and dying. Cory is one of the kindest men I’ve ever met. We should all be so lucky to have a man like him in our neighborhood.”

Booker was quick to respond to Braff’s tweet, writing, “Zach, your dad is a hero in Newark and beyond. Thank you for living his spirit and continuing his kindness.” Braff replied, “He loved you very much. Don’t ever change, Cory.” The actor then lightened the mood by quoting a “wise poet” named Taylor Swift: “A wise poet once said, ‘The haters gonna hate, hate, hate.'”

Braff isn’t the only celebrity to jump to Booker’s defense following Trump’s comments. Alyssa Milano wrote, “Cory Booker is a vegan. He saved a woman from a burning building. He’s a Rhodes Scholar. That’s it. That’s the tweet.” And Kathy Griffin quipped, “I just sent Cory Booker my house keys.”

This isn’t the first time that Trump has accused Biden and Booker of posing a danger to wealthy neighborhoods. Last month, the president proclaimed that the “suburban housewife” would be voting for him because low-income housing “would invade their neighborhood… with Corey Booker in charge.” The New Jersey Senator, returning a misspelled favor by adding an extra “E” to Trump’s name, shot back, “Donaled, your racism is showing. -Cory.”

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