The Westfield teenager who became a national celebrity after she was one of several girls at her high school who were victimized by deepfake pornography created using artificial intelligence (AI), is calling out Senator Cory Booker because the New Jersey lawmaker raised the sole objection to legislation that would prohibit such treachery.
Francesca Mani, a 15-year-old Westfield high school student, helped craft the legislation after boys in her class had used AI software to fabricate images depicting her and other girls in sexually explicit positions.
The Westfield High School sophomore was seated in the House Gallery during President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union Address and she was feted as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024.
Francesca Mani said she has worked alongside Senators Ted Cruz and Amy Klobuchar to organize a summit to urge school board members across America to immediately update their school AI policies, to educate and to prevent abuse.
Calling it “a cause I’m fiercely passionate about,” Francesca Mani said. “We’re sending invitations to all major districts in the U.S., and I’m confident that the board members will do the right thing to protect the students in their districts.”
Echoing the teenage sexual abuse victim’s complaint is the progressive Democrat who challenged Booker’s friend and ally, disgraced former Senator Robert Menendez, in the 2018 Democratic primary election.
“Senator Frank Lautenberg labeled Cory Booker a ‘showhorse’ rather than a ‘workhorse, a distinction that highlights his penchant for visibility and spectacle over getting things done, such as blocking radical conservative Supreme Court justices or substantive legislative achievements,” said Lisa McCormick, who described ‘the grandstander as a do-nothing politician who caters to corporate donors.
“This characterization stems from a pattern of behavior that prioritizes media attention and personal branding over the gritty, behind-the-scenes work typically associated with effective governance,” said McCormick. “Booker made headlines but he failed to stop Bret Kavanaugh from getting on the Supreme Court, he has been silent on the ERA despite its ratification and rejection, and he has failed women a hundred other ways, but that is not important compared to having handsome, metrosexual warmongers creating a distraction instead of solving problems.”
McCormick noted that Booker made some high-minded remarks around the 30th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act, but it did not take home two weeks before he violated women by preventing the bipartisan Take It Down Act from being approved, even though this would criminalize publishing nonconsensual sexually exploitative images, such as those made with AI.
Senators Ted Cruz, Amy Klobuchar, Shelley Moore Capito, Richard Blumenthal, Cynthia Lummis, Jacky Rosen, Ted Budd, Laphonza Butler, Todd Young, Joe Manchin, John Hickenlooper, Bill Cassidy, and Martin Heinrich are Republicans and Democrats who sponsored the proposed law that Booker halted.
McCormick said that Booker filed a last-minute objection to Cruz’s bill because he wanted to deny the embattled Texas incumbent a legislative victory before the upcoming election when he faces a stiff challenge from Democratic Congressman Colin Allred.
“I am saddened that the senator from New Jersey chose to give no explanation for his objection,” Cruz said, pointing out that New Jerseyan Francesca Mani had testified before the Commerce Committee about the dangers of deepfake revenge porn.
“I would love to see Colin Allred in the Senate, almost as much as I would like to see Ted Cruz fired, but it would be wrong to play politics with girls and women who are victims of this kind of sexual assault,” said McCormick, who added that Booker’s crass political gamesmanship is not giving voters a reason to trust Democrats any more than they can rely on politics-driven Republicans.
The noncontroversial bill was circulated to Democratic and Republican senators two weeks before the vote to smooth over any potential objections, but Booker gave no reason why he blocked it from passing.
Booker’s objection stopped it in its tracks.
“It cleared 99 senators. He had a week and a half to object. (As) this legislation was about to pass, and an hour before it was going to pass, the senator from New Jersey raised his objection,” Cruz said in a floor speech, exasperated that Booker had blocked the bill at the last minute.
Mani, also collaborated with Rep. Tom Kean Jr. and other members of Congress in the past to address nonconsensual deepfakes, she said that the Take It Down Act would have gone a long way towards bringing safety and justice to those affected by deepfake porn, if Booker did not choose to be a grandstanding obstructionist.
“By blocking the TAKE IT DOWN Act, my elected official, Senator Cory Booker, failed me and my fellow victims and has left us vulnerable,” Mani said. “This is very disappointing. I am asking, why, Mr. Booker? Make no mistake, without this legislation swiftly becoming a law, teens like me will continue to have no accountability.”
“New Jersey has made terrible choices by electing disgraced former Senator Robert Menendez, who was strongly supported by Cory Booker. and this makes that look like a terrible choice as well,” said McCormick, who took nearly four of ten votes away from the corrupt former lawmaker in the 2018 Democratic primary.
When Mani testified before the Commerce Committee in June, she told senators “The obvious lack of laws speaks volumes. We girls are on our own, and considering that 96 percent of deepfake AI victims are women and children, we’re also seriously vulnerable and need your help.”