New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (D) has come under fire from conservatives for a hand gesture he made during the California Democratic Party convention that critics say resembled a “Nazi salute.”
Booker’s action drew swift comparisons to Elon Musk’s controversial wave earlier this year, which prompted widespread media coverage and accusations of fascist symbolism.
Booker spoke to California Democrats in Los Angeles on Saturday, urging supporters to “stand up” against President Donald Trump.
His remarks echoed themes from a lengthy 25-hour Senate floor speech in March where he criticized Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency and the Trump administration for alleged attacks on Americans’ safety, financial stability and democracy.
“Real change does not come from Washington. It comes from communities,” he said, according to Fox News.
“It comes from the streets. It comes from the people who’s standing up and have shown over and over again – against the powerful, against the elected, against the rich – that the power of the people is greater than the people in power.”
At the end of his roughly 15-minute address, Booker placed his right hand on his chest before raising it toward the crowd.
Conservatives quickly seized on the gesture, circulating video and questioning whether the media would accuse Booker of a Nazi salute as they had Musk.
Musk’s wave during a January Trump rally sparked dozens of headlines for branding it a “Nazi-style salute.”
The criticism came amid ongoing liberal comparisons of Trump to Adolf Hitler, including former Vice President Kamala Harris’s comments in an October town hall where she likened Trump to the German dictator.
Conservative commentators highlighted the apparent media silence surrounding Booker’s gesture.
Social media account Libs of TikTok pointed out the incident on X.
“Hi @MSNBC, you reported on Elon’s hand gesture and compared him to a n*zi,” the account wrote. “I was looking for your article on Cory Booker’s salute but I couldn’t find it.. I’m sure you probably just missed this story by mistake… Here’s the clip. I look forward to your report condemning him.”
Tony Lane, a Republican and former basketball player, also called out the media, tweeting, “Cory Booker—who blasted Elon Musk for a so-called ‘salute’—just did the exact same gesture on stage. Where’s the outrage now? CNN? Silent. MSNBC? Nothing. NYTimes, WaPo, Axios? Crickets. These same outlets ran wall-to-wall coverage when it was Elon.”
Conservative influencer Paul A. Szypula added, “.@thedailybeast called @elonmusk a ‘Nazi’ at least 11 times. TDB has one article about @CoryBooker making his Sieg Heil. Don’t expect more. The real story isn’t the salute, neither men were actually praising the Nazis. The story is the media being an arm of the Democrat Party.”
Booker’s spokesperson Maya Krishna-Rogers addressed the accusations with Fox News.
“Cory Booker was obviously just waving to the crowd,” she told the outlet. “Anyone who claims his wave is the same as Elon Musk’s gesture is operating in bad faith. The differences between the two are obvious to anyone without an agenda.”
While Booker refrained from labeling Musk’s gesture as a Nazi salute, he has previously issued strong condemnations of Trump, once describing him in 2019 as “worse than a racist” and accusing him of weaponizing “racist tropes” to divide the country.
This episode highlights ongoing disputes about political symbolism and media bias, with conservatives accusing the press of unevenly applying criticism based on political affiliations.
