Booker invokes Dylann Roof in response to proposal on letting prisoners vote

Sen. Cory BookerCory Anthony BookerRand Paul introduces bill to end no-knock warrants Black lawmakers unveil bill to remove Confederate statues from Capitol Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk MORE (D-N.J.) called the debate over allowing incarcerated people to vote “frustrating,” invoking the man convicted of murdering nine African American worshippers in a South Carolina church in 2015, according to PBS NewsHour.

“If Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE wants to get involved in a conversation about whether Dylann Roof and the [Boston] Marathon bomber should have the right to vote, my focus is liberating black and brown people and low-income people from prison,” Booker, a 2020 presidential candidate, told PBS, calling it a “frustrating debate.”

“My focus is tearing down the system of mass incarceration so that we don’t even have to have the debate about people’s voting rights because they’re not going to prison in the first place,” he added.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), another Democratic White House contender, said in a CNN town hall last week that even “terrible people” should be enfranchised, calling the right to vote “inherent to our democracy.” His answer came in response to a question asking if Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be allowed to vote.

Vermont and Maine allow incarcerated people to vote.

Booker recently completed a two-week tour of Florida to campaign against efforts in the Sunshine State’s legislature to reverse the results of a voter referendum enfranchising felons who have served their time. Booker has sponsored legislation making similar provisions for felons’ voting rights at the national level.

The measure, which passed 71-45 along party lines in the state House, would require felons to pay all court fees and costs before being eligible to vote. Sanders has also blasted the legislature’s effort, calling it “racist and unconstitutional.”