(Editor’s Note: Since the publication of this story most if not all of the youtube videos of Booker have been scrubbed with the worst parts of his rant removed from the public eye.)

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker demonstrated why he is not presidential material Tuesday by coming utterly unhinged during a meeting on Capitol Hill. Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen met with members of Congress to discuss various aspects of border security and immigration enforcement but found herself fielding questions about what President Donald Trump may or may not have said during a closed-door discussion on the subject.

Booker and fellow Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy seemed far less interested in discussing the tasks Nielsen’s department was dealing with than painting the president as a racist. Leahy pressed Nielsen on whether Trump had referred to certain countries as “sh*tholes” during a White House meeting on immigration policy. Nielson, who had attended the meeting, denied having heard the president use that particular word. “I don’t believe he said that specifically,” she told the Senator.

Playing the Race Card as Usual

Neilson confirmed that Trump had used some “rough language” at the meeting, adding that several others in attendance had done the same. The Secretary explained to Leahy that the president was pushing for a new immigration philosophy that would focus on individual merit, rather than race or country of origin. Using Norway as an example, Trump insists that the United States should be opening up immigration to those who would benefit America. “…those who have skills, who can assimilate and contribute to the United States,” Nielsen said.

True to the Democratic Party’s core belief – that race must be the deciding factor in all matters of judgment – Leahy pounced: “Norway is a predominantly white country, isn’t it?” The Senator – whose name indicates that his own ancestors came from Ireland, an overwhelmingly white country – was clearly missing the point, and likely deliberately so. There can hardly be a greater distinction between Norway and countries like Haiti and El Salvador, which Trump allegedly described as “sh*tholes,” in terms of economic and political stability in addition to an absence of rampant crime and corruption.

It cannot be denied that some immigrants from extremely poor countries with broken societies have flourished and prospered in America. But both sides of the political divide tend to generalize to advance their respective narratives. Figures from the U.S. Sentencing Commission clearly show that non-U.S. citizens do, in fact, account for a percentage of crime disproportionately higher than the that of the population they comprise. Likely, the overwhelming majority of those immigrant criminals did not immigrate – legally or illegally – from Norway.

A Senator Loses His Mind

While Senator Leahy may have been deliberately trying to make a politically-charged point, his performance at Tuesday’s meeting was sane and rational, compared to the appalling display put on by Senator Booker. The latter subjected the DHS Secretary to a vicious, bullying assault that no Republican politician, addressing a female government employee, would have gotten away with. Booker took issue with the president’s alleged language but that, in itself, was not newsworthy. His manner was, by any standards, totally unacceptable; wide-eyed and almost foaming at the mouth, the Senator attacked Nielsen with such aggression that one could be forgiven for speculating that, had he thought he could get away with it, he would surely have physically assaulted the Secretary.

Booker yelled at Nielsen, his face twisted with hate. This is no exaggeration. He accused her of being “complicit” in Trump’s allegedly racist language by declining to admit that she had heard the president describe certain third-world countries as “sh*tholes.”

The True Character of Cory Booker

The Senator’s over-the-top and completely unnecessary performance poses questions about his mental stability and, indeed, his own prejudices. Is Booker a misogynist? Does he feel threatened or intimidated by a woman who outranks him in the federal government? Is he merely a bully? The answer to one or all of those questions may well be yes. Two things that must be asked, however, are whether he would have directed such a vicious attack upon Nielson had she not been a woman and, equally as pertinent, would he have done so if she had not been white?

Assuming, for a moment, that Booker is, in fact, more rational and calculating than he appeared, one can only see his performance as exactly that: a performance. With his almost Oscar-worthy display, Booker may have been staking his claim to a 2020 presidential candidacy. At a time when men’s behavior towards women has become the subject of such intense scrutiny, however, Booker did himself a disservice. Should he indeed run for president, this gut-wrenching attempt to demean and intimidate a female public servant will surely come back to haunt him. It is reminiscent of the famous Howard Dean scream – a momentary lapse of judgment; an exposing of raw emotion that will leave a terrible taste in the mouths of many voters.

Furthermore; if this was all an act, it is worth contemplating the nature of a man who would subject a woman to such public humiliation merely to put his name up in lights as a presidential contender. Lack of character, lack of principle, and unbridled narcissism are but a few observations that come to mind.

Just as the current president has been the subject of much talk about fitness – mentally and temperamentally – to hold the office, Booker has writ large a question mark that will follow him from here on. If his anger, hatred, and aggression were, in fact, genuine, what does that say about his fitness for the highest office in the land? If a man is capable of coming this unglued over a word that another man may, or may not, have used in a private meeting, can the former be trusted to lead the nation? Can he be relied upon to drive policy that affects the whole of America and the whole of the world? Can we give him codes that could set the world on the path to nuclear devastation?