carolina, and new hampshire in the weeks to come. rebecca buck for us in new jersey. cory booker announces he s running for president. certainly one of the more anticipated announcements in this 2020 race. let s bring in cnn senior political reporter nia-malika henderson, van jones, host of the van jones show, jackie kucinich, and john avlon here as well. van, i want to start with you here. where does cory booker fit in this new crowded field, and i don t think it s any coincidence at all that senator booker is announcing on february 1st, the beginning of black history month and some of his first radio interviews will be with the likes of tom joiner and extremely maybe the most popular african-american radio host. well, time joiner certainly that. first of all, i have to say i ve known cory booker for almost 25 years. i graduated from yale law school in spring of 93. he showed up in the fall of 93 and took the entire law school
moments ago new jersey senator cory booker made it official. he is running for president. the announcement comes on the first day of black history month. senator booker spoke moments ago on the tom joiner morning show. i want everyone to know i am running for president of the united states of america. we live in a nation where people are beginning to lose faith in what we can do together. folks feel left out. folks are feeling left behind. i think too many people are beginning to think that the things that are tearing us apart are stronger than the things holding us together. with booker now in the democratic field has grown to ten candidates. let s get to rebecca buck live near booker s home in newark with more on the breaking details. as you mentioned, he announced on the first day of black history month a lot of symbolism there.
breaking news. all right. good morning, everyone. welcome to your new day. alisyn is off, erica hill joins me and we do begin with breaking news in the race for president. the democratic field in the hunt for 2020 getting bigger. a big new entry as of this second, new jersey senator kory booker is making it official. he is running for president. we want to go straight to cnn s rebecca who is live near booker s home in newark, new jersey, with more on these breaking details. rebecca. reporter: that s right. we re here in newark, the city that launched cory booker s career as mayor some years ago. today he s takes that next big step to run for president. and he picked a symbolic day to do it. this is the first day of black history month. booker is the second african-american candidate to jump into this democratic primary after senator kamala harris and is he putting that
seen to be close to financial interests. i think one of the reasons why in addition to his personal passion for the issue that he s leaned to hard on criminal justice reform is because it is, you know, a very, very strong progressive value that rounds out the picture of cory booker. cory booker really was that guy who would in the morning he might be in the community center in newark talking to the poorest kids in new jersey and that after mean it might be on wall street talking to some of the richest people in the world and then back in newark. and basically with the same message to both constituents. but if you just grab him on the wall street side you can do some damage to him with this democratic naert do democratic party that does not like wall street. cory booker can sometimes be characterized as being too close to that so-called 1%. this may not be the year for that. so you re going to see him go
crossfire host dan jones in los angeles, and also joining us from washington, cnn political commentator donna brazil. martin luther king iii, he talked about creating a coalition of conscience. what does that mean to both of you? first of all, it s just an extraordinary day. you re going to have these truly legends. you ve got john lewis, who is a living legend, beaten for civil rights. and the woman whose husband was murdered in front of her and her children. they re going to be here 50 years later and at the same time you have a generation that s rising. you heard ben jealous earlier today. he was talking as passionatal as rights for lesbians and gays as he was for african-americans. there is a rainbow coalition, so to speak, that dr. king imagined that is now helping to run the country through the obama phenomenon, the cory booker phenomenon. i think it s a big day.