‘I’m so raw today’: Senators Harris and Booker give emotional speeches about anti-lynching bill blockage

‘This is part of the great stain of America’s history’

Democratic senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker gave emotional responses in the Senate, to Rand Paul blocking a bill that would make lynching a federal crime.

Republican senator Rand Paul is solely holding up the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act that Congress passed in February.

The legislation has failed to pass in the Senate, due to Mr Paul, who said on Wednesday that he wants to make sure senators are able to “make the language the best that we can get it.”

The legislation comes as protests are taking place all over the US, in response to the death of George Floyd, who died after being detained by Minneapolis police.

Protests, which are in opposition to police brutality, have put added scrutiny on systemic racism and injustice in the US and many are hopeful that now is the best time to get the bill passed.

Speaking during a debate in the Senate, that took place the same time as Mr Floyd’s memorial, Ms Harris and Mr Booker produced emotional speeches in favour of the bill.

The two senators are joined by only one other African American in the Senate, Republican Tim Scott, and Ms Harris said that blocking the bill is “an insult” to all three of them.

“That we would not be taking the issue of lynching seriously is an insult, an insult to Senator Booker, an insult to Senator Tim Scott and myself, and all of the senators past and present who have understood this is part of the great stain of America’s history,” she said.

Harris added, visibly emotional: “To suggest that anything short of pulverising someone so much that the casket would otherwise be closed except for the heroism and courage of Emmett Till’s mother; to suggest that lynching would only be a lynching if someone’s heart was pulled out, reduced and displayed to someone else is ridiculous.”

Mr Paul’s amendment, that he proposed during the debate, would give police “qualified immunity,” which would protect them from being sued.

Ms Harris said that the Republican’s amendment would “place a greater burden on victims of lynching than is currently required under federal hate crime laws.”

Mr Booker, the senator from New Jersey, referenced Mr Floyd’s memorial at the start of his speech.

“I’m so raw today,” he said. “Of all days we are doing this. Of all days we are doing this right now.”

The senator said that he has tried to convince Mr Paul to support the bill and does not need to be educated about lynching by him.

“I do not need my colleague, the senator from Kentucky, to tell me about one more lynching in this country.

“I have stood in the museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and watched African American families weeping at the stories of pregnant women lynched in this country and their babies ripped out of them while this body did nothing,” he said.

Mr Booker blocked the bill on Thursday, and said that that now is the time to pass the legislation, that only Mr Paul disagrees with.

He added: “I object to this amendment. I object, I object. I object on substance, I object on the law, and for my heart and spirit and every fibre of my being, I object for my ancestors.”