Politics

Cory Booker takes credit for putting out a mattress fire

Patrick Howley Political Reporter
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New Jersey Senate candidate Cory Booker, who is also the mayor of Newark, claimed credit for putting out a mattress fire on New Jersey’s Interstate 280.

“There is a mattress on fire in the area which I think is between exit 14/15 on 280W…called police-no answer,” a Hoboken woman tweeted at Booker Wednesday night.

“On it,” Booker replied, using the Twitter catch phrase he reserves for the times when he springs into action to help potential voters with their various problems.

“Update: The [Newark Fire Department] responded at 10:31 and found a mattress had been burning. It was extinguished immediately,” Booker later tweeted.

It is unclear why there was a burning mattress on Interstate 280, but it was likely one of the least interesting or problematic sights on the interstate that evening, according to The Daily Caller’s limited but still harrowing personal experiences involving the city of Newark.

Booker has been using his Twitter account this election cycle to coordinate his frequent acts of heroism, in which he employs Newark city agencies to save pets and perform other feats that Booker then takes credit for.

Though Newark is reportedly safer than only 9 percent of U.S. cities, and though Newark has a higher crime rate than more than 93 percent of New Jersey communities, Mayor Booker has been routinely praised on Twitter during his Senate campaign for his heroics.

As TheDC exclusively reported, Booker left a Newark woman hanging for about a day while she desperately tweeted to Booker for help with her raccoon infestation, before Newark Animal Control finally arrived at her residence and caught at least one of the woman’s problematic raccoons.

“Though unwanted raccoons, skunks and foxes are the responsibility of property owners, the City of Newark voluntarily set up two different traps in this particular case. Our Division of Animal Control will be checking these traps frequently,” a spokesman for Booker’s office told TheDC during the raccoon episode.

Booker also uses his Twitter account as a veritable diary to chronicle his personal feelings.

“Sometimes it’s hard to find the right people in life if you won’t let go of the wrong ones,” Booker tweeted Thursday.

It is unclear whether Booker’s tweeting is getting in the way of his other duties.

“Cory late for refrigerated presser. New meaning to ‘chilling effect,'” a New Jersey reporter tweeted Thursday afternoon.

“Lol, chill out, be cool, I’m about to walk in,” Booker replied.

Though Buzzfeed has extensively covered how Twitter-savvy Booker has, and we quote, “captured the hearts of people in Newark and on the internet,” TheDC has also reached out to Booker’s campaign with questions about the candidate’s social media strategy. Booker’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Patrick Howley