Cory Booker sworn in as newest senator
WASHINGTON — Former Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker is starting his new job in an unusual position — a freshman Democratic senator with celebrity status.
The man Oprah Winfrey once dubbed a “rock star mayor” — he has 1.4 million followers on Twitter — was sworn in Thursday during a brief ceremony on the Senate floor. He won a special election in mid-October to fill the seat of longtime Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died in June.
Dozens of photographers and reporters followed Booker around the Capitol, from a cramped photo opportunity with Majority Leader Harry Reid to a ceremonial swearing-in in the Old Senate Chamber to a private reception thrown by the state’s other senator, Robert Menendez.
Booker also had a private meeting with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office in the afternoon.
