Sen. Cory Booker Cory Anthony Booker3 reasons why Biden is misreading the politics of court packing Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death DHS opens probe into allegations at Georgia ICE facility MORE (D-N.J.), a 2020 White House hopeful, sharply criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellTrump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance On The Money: Anxious Democrats push for vote on COVID-19 aid | Pelosi, Mnuchin ready to restart talks | Weekly jobless claims increase | Senate treads close to shutdown deadline The Hill's Campaign Report: Trump faces backlash after not committing to peaceful transition of power MORE late Tuesday over comments the Kentucky Republican made concerning racism and reparations.

In an interview with CNN, Booker said that McConnell had no "understanding" of racial issues after he argued that reparations for slavery were unnecessary due to the progress made in race relations in recent years.

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"Mitch McConnell doesn’t seem to even in any way there express an understanding of these issues, or, you know, the bill that I have in the Senate which would call people together to study this issue," Booker said, referring to a bill he authored that would establish a commission to examine the possibility of reparations for slavery.

"Dear God, there’s ... this has been a couple of years of my life for Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE where things come out of their mouths where sometimes I have to just sometimes ... you know, have to take a step back for a second and gather myself," he added.

McConnell earlier Tuesday said that both he and the former president were "descendants of slaveholders," referring to a Baltimore Sun report in 2007 that found that two of Obama's ancestors had owned slaves.

"You know, I find myself once again in the same position as President Obama. We both oppose reparations, and we both are the descendants of slaveholders," McConnell said on Tuesday.

“We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We’ve elected an African American president,” he added to reporters.

In June, McConnell previously expressed his opposition to reparations, claiming that "none of us currently living are responsible.”