"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin asked Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., if he should be the next Democratic leader on Monday after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., faced backlash for voting with Republicans to avert a government shutdown.
"People have been looking to the Democratic Party for a fighter, for a resistance leader, for an opposition party, and you gave them that, so thank you," Hostin said, invoking Booker's marathon Senate floor speech last week. "You call this a moral moment and on the floor you invoked John Lewis saying, 'If it is to be, it is up to me.' There have been mounting calls for fresh leadership, myself among them. So why not you?'"
Hostin has expressed frustration with Schumer since the Democratic senator voted with the GOP to avert a government shutdown in March. Hostin scolded the senator during an interview on "The View," and accused him of caving to Trump.
"We don't need a title to lead. You don't need a position to lead. We all have the capacity to lead," Booker responded.
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Booker tore into President Donald Trump during the record-long, 25-hour Senate floor speech last week, which received widespread praise from fellow Democrats while being derided as a stunt by Republicans.
The New Jersey senator said Trump "has inflicted so much harm on Americans' safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy, and even our aspirations as a people for, from our highest offices, a sense of common decency."
During Schumer's appearance on "The View" in March, Hostin told the senator, "It gives me no pleasure to say this to you, because we are friends, but I think you caved."
"I think you and nine other Democrats caved," she told Schumer, referring to their support for the GOP funding bill.
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Schumer defended himself at the time, insisting he wanted to fight hard against Trump. However, he also said Democrats needed to fight "smart."
He panned the bill but said it did "far less damage" to important government programs than if they were eliminated by Musk.
"There are many fewer cuts in that bill than there would be in a shutdown," he told Hostin.
Booker told Fox News Digital that every Democrat needed to stand up and lead when pressed on whether he should be the party's national leader.
"I think that, as the great Ella Baker said, we are the leaders we've been looking for," Booker said. "I think the Democratic Party needs everybody to realize it's time for all of us to lead."
Fox News Digital's Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
