WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker said Sunday that former Vice President Joe Biden was “causing a lot of frustration and even pain” with his discussion of race, such as his refusal to reflect on the impact on minority communities brought about by the 1994 crime bill he supported.

The New Jersey Democrat’s comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press” constituted his latest broadside against Biden. The former vice president, the early leader in opinion polls, has been forced on the defensive by the two major African-American presidential candidates, Booker and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, after he cited his ability to work with two ardent segregationists in the Senate.

Booker said Biden has failed to reflect on the disproportionate impact the legislation had on minority communities, even as others who backed the bill acknowledged their mistakes. Because of the crime bill and war on drugs, prisons are disproportionately filled the minorities, often for nonviolent drug offenses.

“When it comes to difficult issues with race, if you can’t talk openly and honestly about your own development on these issues, I think it’s very hard to lead our country forward, so that we actually can deal with our past and rise to a better common cause and common future,” Booker said.

“Right now, the vice president, to me, is not doing a good job at bringing folks together," Booker said. "I’ve heard this from people all around the country — he’s causing a lot of frustration and even pain with his words.”

Booker has made changing the criminal justice system a top priority as a senator, stressing how the 1994 crime bill led to large numbers of black men arrested on nonviolent drug charges and sent to prison.

President Donald Trump last December signed Booker-backed legislation to provide alternatives to incarceration for some nonviolent offenders and Booker promised to use his clemency power as president for at least 17,000 prisoners convicted of low-level drug crimes.

Harris called out Biden during the second night of last week’s presidential debate for opposing federal efforts to desegregate public schools by busing children. Harris said she was one of the children whose educational opportunities were enhanced by being bused to another school.

That came after Booker took issue with Biden talking about the late U.S. Sen. James Eastland of Mississippi. Biden said of Eastland, “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’”

Segregationists used the term “boy” to diminish black men.

“Instead of coming forward and saying, ‘I could have said that better,’ or, ‘Let me tell you what I meant,' he fell into a defensive crouch and tried to reassign blame and said that I should apologize to him.” Booker said on NBC. “Call this country to common ground, to reconciliation. I’m not sure if Vice President Biden is up to that task, given the way this last three weeks have played out."

Booker also took to Twitter after Biden’s comments before the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

This isn’t about a hoodie. It’s about a culture that sees a problem with a kid wearing a hoodie in the first place. Our nominee needs to have the language to talk about race in a far more constructive way. https://t.co/c2BFSSOHro — Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) June 28, 2019

In a statement, the Biden campaign said the former vice president “was calling direct attention to the daily experience faced by many African American men around the country. And the perceived so-called threat from people like Trayvon Martin, who were racially profiled and deemed criminal while wearing a hoodie."

Martin, 17, was shot to death in 2012 in a Sanford, Florida, gated community by a resident who claimed he fired in self defense. The resident, George Zimmerman, was found not guilty of all charges.

“As a guy growing up as a young black guy in America, who was followed and surveilled, faced that indignity and even the danger of that, being perceived to be a threat, again, this is just another example of just conversations or lessons that Joe Biden shouldn’t have to learn,” Booker said.

“Again, we need nominees that can speak to this in a way that heals, that brings people together, that rises us up, as a country, to not only deal with historic and systemic racism, but helps us to come together and deal with our common purpose and common cause.”

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

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