Booker Will Break With Tradition By Testifying Against Sessions

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker calls his decision to testify against Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the right-wing, anti-LGBT politician,who is up for U.S. attorney general, a "call to conscience."

Booker will testify Wednesday, the second day of Sessions's confirmation hearing. His testimony will be history-making. It's the first time a sitting senator will testify against a colleague during a confirmation hearing for a Cabinet position, reports CNN.

Ed O'Keefe, a reporter for The Washington Post, spoke with Booker Tuesday. The New Jersey senator reportedly said that he's planning on speaking about how "civil rights activists from Ala., elsewhere, key to his current political existence," tweeted O'Keefe.

Booker went on to say, "I have great respect for him as a colleague," but he told O'Keefe that he is aware that Sessions "has worked against many of the things that both Democrats and Republicans" support regarding criminal justice reform.

Regarding Booker's decision to testify against Sessions, Kate Kendell, the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, told The Advocate, "I wish we could clone Cory Booker."

She repeated Booker's statement from an interview he did with CNN, saying he is "absolutely correct that we are in an unprecedented time." "We must behave differently, we must show up and push back," said Kendell.

Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas criticized Booker for his decision. "I'm very disappointed that Senator Booker has chosen to start his 2020 presidential campaign by testifying against Senator Sessions," Cotton wrote in a Facebook post.

In response to whether Booker is positioning himself as a presidential candidate to run against Donald Trump in 2020, Kendell said, "I don't care what his motivation is. The most important question everyone should be asking themselves every morning they wake up is how do we resist this tyrant and his perspective nominees who threaten everything we've built as a movement and the most cherished constitutional principles that make it possible for us to feel a sense of freedom and belonging."

Wednesday's hearing will be streamed live on C-SPAN.