Mayor Booker on first debate: “I wanted to scream out;” wants honesty in future debates

Mayor Cory Booker discusses the need for transparency during the upcoming debates and says President Obama should walk a fine line between being presidential and coming out strong.

“I wasn’t in the president’s debate prep, but there is a lot of right advice on a president to stay presidential,” Mayor Booker said. “’Don’t get out there.’ I remember when Romney said, ‘I should — if that’s right, president, I’ll hire a new accountant.’ I wanted to scream out, Obama, say, ‘keep your accountant. They’re allowing you to pay only 13 percent in taxes. The rest of us should have accountants like that.’”

Mayor Booker continues, “But that’s like a shot I don’t want to hear from my president. So he’s got a fine line to walk. The reality is I would have liked to see some hard punches to the gut when Romney would say something factual inaccurate, like President Obama was raiding $716 billion from Medicare, which is factually inaccurate. But I think the president learned a lot, he said it himself, from that first debate. I think the second one, you’ll see him come out strong,”

Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien airs weekday mornings from 7-9am ET on CNN.