Republican Steve Lonegan has criticized Cory Booker's suggestion
that he's okay with voters thinking that he's gay.
Booker and Lonegan are vying to fill the seat left vacant by the
June 6 death of New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg. A special
election will take place on October 6.
Booker, the Democratic mayor of Newark, told The
Washington Post that “some part of me thinks it's
wonderful” that people think he's gay.
“Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love
seeing on Twitter when someone says I'm gay, and I say, 'So what does
it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me
because you are making the presumption that I'm straight,'” he
said.
In a telephone interview with Newsmax's Steve Malzberg, Lonegan
described Booker's comments as “weird” for a guy.
“As a guy, I personally like being a guy,” Lonegan, the former
New Jersey head for the Koch Brother's Americans for Prosperity. “I
don't know if you saw the stories last year, they've been out quite a
bit, about how he likes to go out at 3 o'clock in the morning for a
manicure and pedicure.”
He added: “Maybe that helps him get the gay vote, by acting
ambiguous. Although, I don't like going out in the middle of the
night, or any time of day, for manicures and pedicures. It was
described as his peculiar fetish, is how it was described. I have a
more peculiar fetish: I like a good Scotch and a cigar, that's my
fetish. But we'll just compare the two.” (The video is embedded
on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
In response, Booker
told BuzzFeed: “It's just disheartening to hear somebody in
this day and age … implicate that gay men are not men. … That
kind of callous bigoted disrespect to gays and lesbians shouldn't be
tolerated.”