“My romantic life is evolving,” says the senator from New Jersey, who believes thrice-married President Trump has “broken the mold” on public expectations of first families.
By Kevin Sullivan Kevin Sullivan Senior correspondent covering national and international affairs Email Bio Follow April 12 at 1:11 PM NEWARK — A banged-up Dodge Caravan pulls up next to Sen. Cory Booker, who’s out for a walk in the banged-up city center where he’s lived for almost a quarter-century.
Booker speaks during his news conference Feb. 1. Booker, who is unmarried, says thrice-married President Trump has “broken the mold” on public expectations of first families. The presidency has, until recently, been marinated in the notion that a traditional family life connotes wholesomeness, integrity, character. Most recent presidents have presented themselves as dad in chief, with a wife, children and preferably a loyal dog. The iconic photo of John F. Kennedy Jr.
“I do not merge my personal life with my professional life,” he says, taking loping, athletic strides in his black wingtips. “I’m running for president of the United States because I believe that I —” He says they met at a fundraiser for mutual friend Ben Jealous during Jealous’s unsuccessful 2018 run for governor of Maryland. They didn’t speak much then, but they met up again at a party hosted by another mutual friend, and they started dating just before Thanksgiving.
“I’m a straight guy with a great girlfriend,” Booker says as he walks. “I know that I will be attacked, and they will always find some way to attack me no matter what.” Back outside, Booker patiently answers more questions about the private lives of politicians — especially his. He was elected to the Newark city council in 1998 representing the Central Ward, then was elected mayor in 2006 and a U.S. senator in 2013. Brick Towers has since been torn down, but Booker can see where it stood from his front door.
“There have always been people saying it is fake,” said Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law School professor who was Booker’s classmate on the Rhodes Scholarship and at Yale Law. “But after years of close assessment I have concluded, as confidently as I am confident of anything in the world, that it is not.”
He has been seen out in public over the years with a number of women, which has created a lot of media buzz about his love life — which he says is sometimes wrong. For example, he says, TV news personality Gayle King, an occasional subject of media speculation, is simply a close friend.
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