Cory Booker staffer arrested for allegedly carrying pistol without license at Capitol
The United States Capitol Police said in a statement, "Yesterday afternoon, a Member of Congress led an ID'ed staff member around security screening at the Hart Senate Office Building.
"Later that evening, outside the Senate Galleries, the IDed staff member — who is a retired law enforcement officer — told our officers he was armed.
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"The staff member, 59-year-old Kevin A. Batts of New Jersey, was arrested for Carrying a Pistol Without a License. All weapons are prohibited from Capitol Grounds, even if you are a retired law enforcement officer, or have a permit to carry in another state or the District of Columbia," the statement continued.
Batts is listed as a "special assistant" to Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., on Legistorm, a research entity that routinely updates salaries and information about lawmakers and their staffs.
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, Booker spokesperson Jeff Giertz said, "Sen. Booker's office employs a retired Newark police detective as a New Jersey-based driver who often accompanies him to events. We are working to better understand the circumstances around this."
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In 2016, Booker shared a video of Batts on social media, identifying Batts as a former detective in Newark. At the time, Batts said he had worked for either the city of Newark or Booker's office for 28 years.
"Kevin Batts has been a friend and team member since 2006 when I became mayor and even before," the senator wrote on Instagram. "I so deeply appreciate his steadfast friendship, incredible dedication to Newark and now his service to the state. Kevin was raised in Columbus Homes projects in Newark, then spent 6 years in the United States army reserves and then joined the Newark Police Department and became a detective in 2004.
"In 2006, he joined my security detail as a member of Newark's executive protection unit. In 2013 he joined my Senate staff. I am truly blessed by his friendship and loyal hard work."
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Booker also mentioned Batts in a 2017 commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania.
"And as I told my driver, an incredible officer named Kevin Batts, retired from the Newark Police Department, joined my staff because of our friendship and our bond, I said to him, "Kev, we're almost home but do you mind? We have to swing through the drive-thru," he said.
Batts' arrest comes as Booker continues to break records for one of the longest floor speeches in American Senate history.
The senator, who began speaking Monday night, now holds the fourth-longest Senate floor speeches, recently surpassing Sen. Robert La Follette, R-Wis., who spoke for 18 hours and 23 minutes in 1908.
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Next up is the record held by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose speech against Obamacare in 2013 went on for 21 hours and 19 minutes.
The record holder is Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against a civil rights bill in 1957.
If Booker continues to speak, he will break Thurmond's record around 7:19 pm Eastern time on Tuesday night.Original article source: Cory Booker staffer arrested for allegedly carrying pistol without license at Capitol
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'President Trump is giving away the farm to Xi just so he can save face and reach a nonsensical trade deal with Beijing that will hurt American families economically,' said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. On Tuesday, Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the Trump administration 'has not wavered — and will never waver — in safeguarding our national and economic security to put America first.' 'The administration continues to have productive conversations with China to address longstanding unfair trade practices,' Desai said, adding that export controls on cutting-edge technology and many tariffs remain in place. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, after his latest round of trade negotiations with the Chinese in July, told CNBC that the team was 'very careful to keep trade and national security separate.' And Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appearing on Fox News Radio, said the U.S. remains 'as committed as ever to our partners … in places like Taiwan' but also spoke of the strategic need to keep trade ties with China steady. 'In the end, we have two big, the two largest economies in the world,' Rubio said. 'An all-out trade conflict between the U.S. and China, I think the U.S. would benefit from it in some ways, but the world would be hurt by it.' There's worry over Taiwan Taiwan is concerned that the self-governing island could be 'trade-able' when Trump seeks a deal with Beijing, said Jason Hsu, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former legislator in Taiwan. 'Our concern is that, will any of the trade deals lead to concession on political support for Taiwan?' Hsu said, citing the case last month where the White House allegedly blocked a request for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to transit through the United States. The U.S. maintains unofficial ties with Taiwan and has always allowed such transits in the past. Experts are worried that the Trump administration is setting a bad precedent, and Democrats have seized on it to criticize Trump. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, called the move 'both a sharp break from precedent and another example of the Trump administration caving to China in hopes of reaching a trade deal.' He said the policy decision 'sends a dangerous signal' that Taiwan's democracy is negotiable. Hsu said Taiwan fears that Trump could be coerced or compelled to support the one-China principle, as espoused by Beijing, that acknowledges Beijing's sovereignty claim over the island. There are also concerns that Trump might utter anything in support of 'unification.' That was a request Beijing raised with the Biden administration, though it failed to get a positive response. Now, it's upon Taiwan to persuade Trump to think of the island as 'an economic partner rather than something that he can trade when he negotiates with China,' Hsu said, suggesting that Taiwan step up defense commitments, increase energy procurement, open its market to U.S. companies and invest more in the U.S. But Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said Trump is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act, a domestic law that obligates the U.S. to maintain an unofficial relationship with the island and provides it with sufficient hardware to deter any invasion by China. 'He can dial the (U.S.-Taiwan) relationship up and down,' Sun said, 'but he can't remove the relationship.' Export controls have been instituted, to mixed results In April, the White House, citing national security, announced it would restrict sales of Nvidia's H20 computer chips to China. The ban was lifted about three months later, when the two governments had climbed down from sky-high tariffs and harsh trade restrictions. The decision upset both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on China, wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to stress that the U.S. cannot let the Chinese Communist Party 'use American chips to train AI models that will power its military, censor its people, and undercut American innovation.' In Stockholm, Bessent pushed back at the concern that national security might be compromised. 'We are very diligent,' Bessent said, adding there's an interagency process that involves the National Security Council and the Defense Department for decisions. 'There's nothing that's being exchanged for anything,' Bessent said. Addressing H20 chips specifically, Bessent said they 'are well down' Nvidia's 'technology chips stack.' U.S. companies are banned from selling their most advanced chips to China. That might not be persuasive enough. Teneo's Wildau said China hawks are most worried that the H20 decision could be the beginning of a series of moves to roll back export controls from the Biden era, which were once considered 'permanent and non-negotiable.'
