Article snippet: CHARLESTON, S.C. — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., called on Wednesday for a national crusade against gun violence and a moral reckoning with the strains of white supremacy “ingrained in our politics since our founding,” as demands for government action continued to mount after two gun massacres last weekend in Texas and Ohio. Standing in the sanctuary of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, one floor above the site of the 2015 attack by a white supremacist who murdered nine black people, Booker said the present moment amounted to a national crisis in which Americans must choose sides and confront their own past. “Racist violence has always been part of the American story, never more so than in times of transition and times of rapid social change,” Booker said, describing the country as facing a “crossroads.” “There is no neutrality in this fight,” he said. “You are either an agent of justice or you are contributing to the problem.” Booker’s address began a day that promised to renew the Democratic presidential candidates’ denunciations of President Donald Trump, for his opposition to gun control and his caustic rhetoric about race and immigration. Later on, former Vice President Joe Biden planned to deliver remarks in Iowa about the problem of white nationalism, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas was also expected to be in the spotlight as Trump visited his native city, El Paso. Though his speech did not mention Trump by name, Booker left no d... Link to the full article to read more