(CNN) 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker says he's fed up with inaction on gun reform after mass shootings, calling the oft-repeated refrain of politicians who offer "thoughts and prayers" to victims "just bullsh**."

"When I'm President of the United States, I'm taking a fight to this issue like folks have never seen before, because we're better than this is a country. It's a uniquely American problem. No other country has this kind of carnage," Booker said to David Axelrod on "The Axe Files," airing Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on CNN. "We are not going to give thoughts and prayers, which to me is just bullsh**. And I'm sorry to say it as a man of faith, but I was taught that faith without works is dead."

This week, Booker unveiled what he dubbed a "simple" gun violence prevention plan that would ban assault weapons and make gun licenses require fingerprints, an interview and completion of a gun safety course. Booker would also take executive actions beginning on his first day as president, his campaign said.

"We're going to bring a fight with everything that I have to solve this problem because it's solvable and we know it," the New Jersey senator said in the wake of three high-profile deadly shootings in the US in the past two weeks.

Booker also singled out his 2020 Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders over the Vermont senator's support for voting rights for convicted felons still in prison. Sanders said the right to vote should be extended "even for terrible people" like the Boston Marathon bomber during a CNN Town Hall in April, and Booker argued that the ensuing debate has distracted from the larger issue of mass incarceration.

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