Progressive champion Lisa McCormick today delivered a blistering indictment of Senator Cory Booker's record, exposing his so-called "reforms" in Newark as corporate giveaways that failed the city's most vulnerable residents while lining the pockets of his wealthy backers.

"Before Cory Booker was Washington's favorite 'progressive' sellout, he was Newark's failed mayor—a corporate puppet who privatized schools, unleashed brutal policing, and took marching orders from right-wing billionaires," said McCormick. "His entire career is a fraud."

Booker's Newark Scam: Failed Schools, Brutal Policing

McCormick detailed Booker's disastrous tenure as mayor:

1. Charter School Betrayal

   • Pushed a massive expansion of charter schools under Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million vanity project—a scheme that did not improve outcomes for Newark students.

   • Funneled public education funds to private operators while firing teachers, closing schools, and ignoring community protests.

   • Left the district in financial chaos, with audits later revealing mismanagement and wasted millions.

2. Police Brutality & DOJ Condemnation

   • Expanded stop-and-frisk and aggressive policing tactics, leading to a surge in civil rights abuses.

   • The Obama Justice Department slammed Newark PD under Booker for systemic misconduct, including false arrests, excessive force, and illegal searches.

   • Instead of accountability, Booker defended the department and took police union endorsements while communities suffered.

3. Surveillance State Mayor

   • Installed Big Brother-style camera networks across Newark, turning the city into a testing ground for militarized policing.

   • Partnered with Palantir, the CIA-backed data-mining firm, to profile residents—laying the groundwork for mass surveillance.

The Right-Wing Money Behind Booker's Rise

McCormick revealed the early backers of Booker's political career:

• Foster Friess (GOP megadonor, bankrolled anti-abortion & climate denial groups)

• Paul Singer (Billionaire hedge funder, top GOP financier, architect of austerity economics)

• Ken Langone (Home Depot co-founder, far-right donor, anti-union extremist)

• Wall Street Titans (Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, & private equity firms bankrolled his early campaigns)

"These are the men who built Cory Booker," said McCormick. "Not grassroots activists—right-wing billionaires who wanted a 'friendly face' to push their agenda."

A Traitor to the Progressive Movement

McCormick condemned Booker's 2020 sabotage of Bernie Sanders:

• Ran a fake progressive campaign to split the left-wing vote.

• Dropped out before a single primary vote—then immediately endorsed corporate Democrat Joe Biden.

• Stabbed Medicare for All in the back after pretending to support it.

"Cory Booker is not an ally—he's a Trojan Horse for Wall Street, the police state, and the 1%," said McCormick. "New Jersey deserves real progressive leadership, not a corporate con artist."

Mark Zuckerberg's 2010 $100 million donation to Newark Public Schools, was part of a larger effort involving then-Mayor Cory Booker and Republican Governor Chris Christie, with the goal of creating a model for education reform across the nation. Zuckerberg's gift was quickly met with a $25 million contribution by The Pershing Square Foundation, headed by Bill Ackman, a longtime donor to Democratic candidates and organizations who endorsed tyrant Donald Trump in the 2024 United States presidential election.

Now, the money has been spent. The governor, mayor, and state-appointed superintendents who once championed Newark’s charters have been replaced. Prior to the spending spree, the average rate of student achievement growth in Grades 4–8 in Newark schools was above the state average in math and by the 2015–2016 academic year, students had seen no significant change in math. That is from Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR), which conducted a study funded by Zuckerberg. 

The Foundation for Newark’s Future was one part of a $200 million campaign for Newark’s public schools with a goal to provide the “shot in the arm” necessary to create systemic change in the city’s educational system. It did not work but the people who benefited from this spending are riding higher than ever while almost everyone else in the nation and the world are at greater peril of financial poverty, physical or mental suffering, and premature death.

Truth has been neglected throughout history, which has resulted in deception, error and darkness in our world, with the end result likely to be humanity's total destruction. Today it feels like being a passenger in a car headed toward a cliff, and watching the driver step on the gas as you become more acutely aware of the danger.  This is happening in real time. There are things we can do to save the world. The people entrusted with power show no sign of doing the things that can save us all, and it requires us to get involved, to make hard choices and actively change the situation.

There is no room on the sidelines, and we must not trust the 'usual suspects' to right the ship. There is no opposition party. Almost every institution we might rely upon has been corrupted, but we have the power to build a new structure that supports meaningful change instead of merely serving as a pacifier to quiet us until the destruction is complete.

Booker's emotional televised plea to "stop attacking private equity" only highlighted his earlier insistence that the harsh campaign criticism of Bain Capital, which he specifically defended, is "nauseating." However, his feelings were influenced by his relationship with Wall Street titans, private equity and Bain because America's financial oligarchs have been very, very good to him.

Our adversaries are willing to destroy democracy if that's what it takes to hold power. We witnessed violence, intentional targeting and terrorizing of elected officials, and frenzied mobs driven by racism, disinformation, and explicit incitement by Republicans and their allies. Why should it be hard to accept that they planted trojan horses like Cory Booker among the left-wing political establishment? 

New Jersey deserves a senator who answers to the people, not the highest bidder.

According to Politico: "Booker took days to join the chorus calling for his friend and colleague Bob Menendez’s resignation from the Senate after he was indicted a second time. Now, Booker speaks in general platitudes after the state’s longtime Democratic kingmaker, George Norcross, was indicted by a state grand jury..."

His silence and meaningless mutterings are not accidental. Booker is holding his tongue. His inaction highlights the importance of speaking up for what is right. 

This is a man who refused to support a progressive champion like NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, yet once endorsed a Republican for that same job. He benefited from a Trump fundraiser for his first Senate campaign. And his campaign coffers are filled with money from more than fifty billionaires.

Booker’s muted response to the reality of living in the two worlds he straddles proves that he values his friendships and alliances with some of the most corrupt politicians in America more than he cares about the people who suffer the consequences of our broken political establishment.

President John F. Kennedy famously misquoted Dante's Inferno, stating "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality" and Martin Luther King Jr. said: "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." 

More than 38,000 students returned to Newark Public Schools in September 2022, after the pandemic, but the district has struggled to hire enough teachers and other educators.  The Newark Board of Education approved a $1.57 billion budget for the upcoming school year with a record-high $1.3 billion contribution in state aid, making up 83% of the district’s budget. Payments to publicly funded but privately managed charter schools are $416 million, more than a quarter of the money taxpayers invest, compared to $498 million allocated directly to schools controlled by principals.

The district enrolls more than 11,000 English language learners and roughly 7,000 students with disabilities who require special education services such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and assistance in the classroom. Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León continues his strategy to reclaim public school buildings and expand the district as student enrollment has increased over recent years.