WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker said Sunday that the recent shootings of police officers in Dallas and two unarmed black men in Louisiana and Minnesota provide another argument against electing Donald Trump as president.

"When I hear a presidential candidate like Donald Trump gratuitously demeaning women, demeaning Muslims, demeaning Latinos at a time where our country needs reconciliation, we need people that bind our wounds and build bridges across our chasms," Booker (D-N.J.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"To see someone so callously stoking hate and fear and inflaming divide, this is not the person to be president of the United States, I believe ever, but definitely not at a time when we need a healer, a reconciler and somebody to remind us that as a nation, our differences matter," Booker said.

Booker, a former mayor of Newark, appeared on the Sunday morning program following the murder of five police officers in Dallas. The officers were protecting marchers who were protesting the deaths of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota after confrontations with police.

Booker, mentioned as a potential running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, said his party's candidate was the opposite of Trump.

"If anything, I've watched her in black communities and white communities and even after this tragedy, put forth the spirit of America," Booker said. "She has manifested that on issues of race, of religion, of gender diversity. She is someone that can build our bridges and far more than the alternative."

Sharing the TV screen with Booker was Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a former mayor of Chattanooga, who said both candidates needed to show they can bring people together.

"Their challenge over the coming weeks is to show that they can do that," Corker said. "I think there is going to be a sincere effort within the Trump campaign to do so. My guess is the same thing will be happening in the Clinton campaign."

Booker has spearheaded efforts to overhaul the criminal justice system and find alternatives to incarceration for those convicted of non-violent offenses.

"African-Americans have no difference than whites in using drugs or dealing drugs, but are about 3.7 times more likely to be arrested," Booker said. "We now know local police officers, with the right training, could address issues like de-escalation, can address issues like implicit racial bias."

He praised police officers as one of the "few groups as I've ever seen in America that show the daily courage, especially urban police officers, where there's a lot of gun violence" and said "we should be doing a lot more as a nation to support those officers."

Following the deaths of several unarmed black men at the hands of police in communities across the U.S., President Barack Obama traveled to Camden in May 2015 to highlight that city's efforts to improve relations between its police officers and the communities they protect.

Gov. Chris Christie also has called attention to the improvements in the city.

Obama also used his appearance in Camden to announce new rules restricting the transfer of military equipment to local police departments. The regulations ban local police departments from some equipment and require them to justify the need for other hardware and to undergo training to use it if elected officials request the weapons.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook