Kamala Harris and Corey Booker give emotional speeches after a Rand Paul amendment holds up anti-lynching bill

• Sens. Kamala Harris and Corey Booker spoke out against an amendment from Sen. Rand Paul that is holding up an anti-lynching bill.
• Paul claimed the bill was too broad.
• The effort came as a memorial service was being held for George Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of a police officer who has since been fired and charged with murder.

Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris and Corey Booker spoke out in emotional terms against an amendment introduced by Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, that held up legislation that would make lynching a federal crime.

"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 fiber of my being, I object for my ancestors," Booker said during a speech in the Senate on Thursday, as CNN reported.

Paul claimed the bill was too broad and unfair, potentially allowing someone who caused relatively minor harm, like a cut or bruise, to be subject to the same 10-year sentence as someone who inflicted more serious damage.

"My amendment would simply apply a serious bodily injury standard, which would ensure crimes resulting in substantial risk of death and extreme physical pain be prosecuted as a lynching," Paul said in a Wednesday statement, according to CNN.

He originally held up the legislation, which easily passed the House, back in February.

Despite years of trying, lawmakers have never succeeded in making lynching a federal crime.

"We want the bill to be stronger," Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, according to CNN. "We think that lynching is an awful thing that should be roundly condemned and should be universally condemned."

—CSPAN (@cspan) June 4, 2020

Harris and Booker gave an emotional rebuttal to Paul's efforts.

"Senator Paul is now trying to weaken a bill that was already passed — there's no reason for this, there's no reason for this," Harris said. "There is no reason other than cruel and deliberate obstruction on a day of mourning."

Harris was acknowledging the memorial service for George Floyd that was happening in Minnesota at the time of the amendment.

Floyd, a black man, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, despite Floyd pleading for his life before becoming unresponsive. All four officers involved in the incident were fired. Prosecutors later brought up third-degree murder and manslaughter charges against Chauvin.

On Wednesday, the other three officers involved in the incident were also arrested and handed charges. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison later bumped up Chauvin's charges to second-degree murder.

Floyd's death has lead to massive protests across the US and abroad.

—CSPAN (@cspan) June 4, 2020

Responding to Paul's argument that the bill should not address lesser forms of hate-based violence, Harris's voice was shaky with anger.

"To suggest that anything short of pulverizing 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," she said.

—CSPAN (@cspan) June 4, 2020

Booker directly addressed Paul, saying: "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."

—Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) June 5, 2020

In a tweet, Booker further took Paul to task.

"On the day of George Floyd's memorial, today would've been a symbolic day to come together and do it," Booker wrote. "But one person stands in the way."