WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker on Tuesday lashed out against William Barr, President Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. attorney general, saying it was incredulous that the nominee did not know about racial bias in the nation’s criminal justice system.
“We have a guy who is about to take that office who says he is ignorant of implicit racial bias,” Booker, D-N.J., said as the Senate Judiciary Committee discussed Barr’s nomination. “Ignorance aligned with power is one of the most dangerous forces in a free society.”
While Booker did not specifically say he would vote against Barr, he left little doubt where he stood.
“He will be part of a continuing problem in our country,” Booker said.
Booker’s comments came in response to Barr’s written answers to committee questions, which followed two days of hearings earlier this month.
Asked by Booker about statistics showing blacks more likely to be arrested for drug crime even though they use drugs at the same rate as whites, Barr said he was unfamiliar with the data.
“I have not studied the issue of implicit racial bias in our criminal justice system,” Barr wrote. “Therefore, I have not become sufficiently familiar with the issue to say whether such bias exists. I believe the data confirm that people of color are disproportionately represented in our nation’s jails and prisons.”
Barr said the Justice Department would “examine racial disparities and the policies that may contribute to them."
Booker also criticized Barr’s role in his earlier stint as attorney general in the war on drugs, which let to an explosion of prison inmates, disproportionately members of minority groups.
“Mr. Barr was an architect of mass incarceration," Booker said. “He literally wrote the book. He designed a lot of what we saw.”
He pressed Barr on that issue during his questioning of the nominee earlier this month.
“Do you think that this system of mass incarceration has disproportionately benefited African-American communities?” Booker said.
“I think the reduction in crime has since 1992,” Barr said. “But I think the heavy drug penalties have harmed the black community and the incarceration rates have harmed the black community.”
Since coming to Washington, Booker had made overhauling the criminal justice system a top priority.
He was part of the bipartisan group of lawmakers involved in the drafting of legislation that offered alternatives to incarceration and shorter prison sentences to those convicted of nonviolent drug-related crimes. Trump signed the bill into law last month.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.