Booker hits Warren over proposal to break up tech giants

Cory Booker swatted at his Senate colleague and fellow 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren for her calls to break up some of the country’s most powerful technology companies — bashing the proposal as not befitting a president and sounding “more like a Donald Trump thing to say.”

In an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl that aired Sunday on “This Week,“ the New Jersey Democrat bemoaned the “really ill effects” of “corporate consolidation” in America, and pledged if elected to the White House to call upon Justice Department investigations and antitrust laws to rein in monopolies.

But Booker said he disagreed with the plan by Warren (D-Mass.) to create “a level playing field” by splintering giant tech firms including Amazon, Facebook and Google, which she has accused of unfair competition and “eating up” business startups.

“I don't think that a president should be running around, pointing at companies and saying breaking them up without any kind of process here,” Booker said.

“It's not me and my own personal opinion about going after folks. That sounds more like a Donald Trump thing to say, ‘I'm going to break up you guys.’”

Booker insisted he was not comparing Warren to Trump, calling her “my friend.” Still, he added: “I'm telling you right now, we do not need a president that is going to use their own personal beliefs and tell you which companies we should break up.”

Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine