The Wednesday segment opened to the strains of the Stealers Wheel classic, Stuck In The Middle With You.

Apt choice, Morning Joe! Cory Booker might have felt stuck between two Democrat Senate colleagues, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. And they were surely feeling stuck with Booker, a showboating stuntman willing to sacrifice his ostensible allies on the altar of his ambition.

Booker took to the Senate floor Tuesday to excoriate his fellow Dems and trash President Trump for passing a police-funding bill. Booker's beef was that it excluded funds for states, like his New Jersey, that had flouted Trump administration policies.

Bellowed the vainglorious Booker:

"I demand justice. It's time for Democrats to have a backbone. It's time for us to fight. It's time for us to draw lines. And when it comes to the safety of my state, being denied these grants, that's why I'm standing here."

Lashing out at Masto and Klobuchar for their—all things considered—fairly muted criticism of him, Booker said: 

"Don't question my integrity. Don't question my motives. I'm standing for Jersey. I am standing for my police officers. I'm standing for the Constitution, and I'm standing for what's right. "

The screencap provides a good example of Booker's histrionics, but view the video to get the complete picture of just what a contrived display of supposedly righteous anger this was.

The Morning Joe crew was united in its criticism of Booker. Mike Barnicle called Booker's performance "great theater," adding, "What I don't understand is, he's yelling at two other Democrats."

Ex-Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill called out Booker for "unfairly criticizing two strong Democrats," then landed a tougher blow on Booker's shameless stunt:

"There's a way to change a bill. And then there's a way to get in the opening segment of Morning Joe and on the front page of  the New York Times. And Corey chose the latter rather than the former. He knew if he did this, it would be a viral moment and he would be associated with Democrats who are willing to fight."

Ouch.

The mannerly Willie Geist called Booker's performance "passionate, perhaps a little theatrical."

A little theatrical? This was a classic case of "chewing the scenery!"

Joe Scarborough weighed in to remind Willie, "He is actually Spartacus, after all."

That was a reference to another self-serving Booker stunt. During the Senate hearings on Brett Kavanaugh's SCOTUS nomination, Booker said he was willing to be expelled from the Senate for releasing classified documents about Kavanaugh. Boasted Booker:

"This is the closest I’ll get to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.”

Here's the transcript.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/30/25
6:20 am EDT

WILLIE GEIST: [As "Stuck In The Middle With You" plays] Live picture of the United States Capitol as the sun comes up over Washington. 

Democrats there sparred with each other on the Senate floor over a bipartisan package of police funding bills. It happened yesterday afternoon when Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey objected to unanimously passing the legislation, prompting Senators Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota to fight back. Senator Booker claims the bills do not provide grants to police departments in Democrat-led states because President Trump has frozen their funding. 

CORY BOOKER: Rather than supporting law enforcement agencies and officers equally across the nation, they are weaponizing public safety grants to punish state and local jurisdictions that resist the Trump policy agenda, including my home state of New Jersey. 

CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO: I agree. Withholding funding for law enforcement anywhere in the country, across the country, is just not acceptable and it should not be done. My bill doesn't even talk about grant funding. There's no funding associated with it. But yet he wants to put it on my piece of legislation. This is why this is ridiculous. 

. . . 

AMY KLOBUCHAR: One of the things I don't understand here is that we have committees for a reason and we have hearings for a reason. And you can't do one thing on Police Week, and not show up and not object, and let these bills go through, and then say another a few weeks later in a big speech on the floor. 

BOOKER: What I am tired of, is when the President of the United States of America violates the Constitution, trashes our norms and traditions, and what does the Democratic party do? Comply? Allow him? Beg for scraps? 

No, I demand justice. It's time for Democrats to have a backbone. It's time for us to fight. It's time for us to draw lines. And when it comes to the safety of my state, being denied these grants, that's why I'm standing here. 

Don't question my integrity. Don't question my motives. I'm standing for Jersey. I am standing for my police officers. I'm standing for the Constitution, and I'm standing for what's right. 

. . . 

MIKE BARNICLE: Well, it's great theater that we just saw Cory Booker, a good guy, standing up and yelling on the floor of the United States Senate. What I don't understand is, he's yelling at two other Democrats. 

. . . 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL: Here's what's going on. The Democratic base is starving for a fighter. They're starving for a fight. They want people to fight Donald Trump because everyone is so frustrated and angry and depressed at everything he's doing and how he's doing it. 

. . . 

So you got that on one side. On the other side, you have Cory Booker unfairly criticizing two strong Democrats that are doing everything they can in their power to fight Donald Trump. 

And, you know, Amy's right. There's a way to change a bill. And then there's a way to get in the opening segment of Morning Joe and on the front page of the New York Times. 

And Corey chose the latter rather than the former. He knew if he did this, it would be a viral moment and he would be associated with Democrats who are willing to fight. 

. . . 

Corey knows we don't have the votes in the Senate to do what the base wants us to do. So the way he criticizes colleagues is really unusual, kind of unheard of, and frankly, to me, a little worrisome with what we have in front of us and the fights we have to, the Democratic Party needs to wage next year in the midterms. 

. . . 

GEIST: You can see almost a surprise on the two senators' face, Klobuchar and Masto, at the level of emotion and aggressiveness put forward by Senator Booker. Passionate, perhaps a little theatrical, as Mike Barnicle mentioned. We'll see where that lands. Also on Capitol Hill, the Republican-led Senate --

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, he is actually Spartacus after all, but go ahead. 

GEIST: That's right. That's right. I am Spartacus.