Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday said that Sen. Cory Booker's (D., N.J.) 11-minute "lecture" to her at a congressional hearing last week was a "distraction" and "very frustrating."
Nielsen criticized Booker's behavior during an appearance on Fox Business with host Maria Bartiromo, who asked about the secretary of homeland security's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Tuesday.
Bartiromo played a clip of Booker scolding Nielsen after she testified that she "did not hear" President Donald Trump use the word "s—hole" to refer to Haiti and African countries in a White House meeting, although she said he used "tough language."
"The commander in chief in an Oval Office meeting referring to people from African countries and Haitians with the most vile and vulgar language," Booker said. "I had tears of rage when I heard about this experience in that meeting ... You don't remember."
"You can't remember the words of your commander in chief. I find that unacceptable," Booker continued. "Your silence and your amnesia is complicit."
Bartiromo asked Nielsen what she thought about Booker's behavior towards her.
"To be honest, it was a distraction and it was very frustrating to me on behalf of the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security, because I was there to talk about real threats and their needs to do their job that the American people asked them to do," Nielsen said. "It became 11 minutes of a lecture about a meeting he was not in about one word and whether or not I heard it."
She went on to say that it was "possible" that Trump used the word "s—hole," but she said she did not hear it.
"There was really no story there," Nielsen said. "He didn't ask me what I think. He didn't ask me what I think about the countries. He didn't ask me what I think about immigration policy. He had no interest in what the secretary of homeland security thinks."
"He just wanted to lecture me for 11 minutes, so it was unfortunate," she continued. "It was an unfortunate waste of all of our time when we could've been focused on the needs and threats."
Bartiromo said that Booker's lecturing sounded like "harassment" and asked Nielsen if she felt harassed, prompting the DHS chief to say that she thought it just felt "inappropriate" for a workplace environment.
"It didn't seem constructive to me. It didn't seem productive. It wasn't a conversation. There wasn't any opportunity for me to explain how I feel, which I would think is what he would be interested in as the secretary of homeland security," Nielsen said. "And, again, he wasn't even in the meeting, so it was a bit confusing as to why he felt that it was appropriate to tell me what I heard and didn't hear when he wasn't even there."
Bartiromo suggested that Booker wanted a platform at the hearing so that he could do a show since his name has been floated as a potential presidential candidate in 2020.