Corey Booker: Triple H Called Out During Linda McMahon Hearing, How Did HHH Respond? [Video]

Corey Booker called out Triple H during Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing, and HHH took the good-natured ribbing from the New Jersey Democrat pretty well, Fox Sports is reporting.

Corey Booker, a politician, and Triple H, a businessman and part-time professional wrestler, aren’t normally the type of people you’d expect to be in the same room together, much less talk smack to each other during government proceedings. But as it turns out, Triple H has found himself unwittingly drawn into the world of politics thanks to his mother-in-law getting picked for a government job by Donald Trump.

So how did Corey Booker and Triple H wind up in the same room together? Well, as you may or may not know, Donald Trump has tapped former WWE CEO Linda McMahon to head the Small Business Administration. Booker and other senators were carrying on with McMahon’s confirmation hearing, and her daughter Stephanie and son-in-law Triple H were there to lend support.

When Booker noticed that HHH was in the room to support his mother-in-law, Booker took a good-natured dig at the professional wrestler.

“I want to also just say when your daughter and son-in-law stood up, just want to say for the record, that your daughter is far more fierce and intimidating than your son-in-law.”

Someone in the crowd then said “That’s sexist!” although it’s not clear if they were serious or if they were just playing along with the joke.

HHH, for his part, responded, “But true!”

Anyway, Booker continued his digs at Triple H.

“Paul and I are about the same age, almost exactly the same age, and Paul’s letting himself slip a little bit so after this maybe we should go to the Senate gym so I can give Triple H some triple help in getting back in shape.”

A couple of quick points. First, Booker was referring to Triple H by his birth name, Paul Michael Levesque. Second, the two men really are quite close in age: Levesque/Triple H was born July 27, 1969; Corey Booker was born just a couple of months earlier, on April 27, 1969.

Before getting down to business, McMahon herself took a jab at her son-in-law, telling Booker that her daughter Stephanie could give Triple H “a good hiptoss.”

You can watch the exchange below, courtesy of C-SPAN.

It wasn’t all laughs at McMahon’s confirmation hearing, however. Although McMahon “sailed through” the hearing more or less unscathed, according to the Huffington Post, Booker and his Senate colleagues apparently rather conveniently overlooked some of the more unsavory aspects of Triple H’s mother-in-law’s career.

Under Linda McMahon’s leadership, WWE settled a lawsuit involving WWE employees and teenage sex abuse; was called before Congress to answer questions about steroid abuse and a number of wrestlers whose deaths may have been caused by steroids; and was revealed to be treating its wrestlers as independent contractors, rather than employees, in order to avoid having to provide them with health insurance benefits.

Further, writer Travis Waldron is concerned that McMahon may not be the obvious choice to lead the Small Business Administration in light of WWE’s crushing of small businesses.

“WWE was part of a patchwork of regional wrestling companies when the McMahons assumed control of the company in 1982, and it grew into a nationwide business with near monopolistic control over professional wrestling ? in large part, critics say, because of the McMahons’ willingness to crush their smaller competitors.”

Needless to say, Corey Booker taking lighthearted jabs at Triple H brought some much-needed levity to an otherwise intensely serious situation.

[Featured Image by Mark Wilson and Ethan Miller/Getty Images]