New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker sets record with marathon Senate speech

Booker took to the Senate floor on Monday evening, saying he would remain there as long as he was “physically able.” It wasn't until more than 25 hours later that the 55-year-old senator finished speaking and walked off the floor

Washington: In a feat of determination, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker held the Senate floor with a marathon speech that lasted all night and into Tuesday evening, setting a historic mark to show Democrats’ resistance to President Donald Trump’s sweeping actions.

Booker took to the Senate floor on Monday evening, saying he would remain there as long as he was “physically able.” It wasn’t until more than 25 hours later that the 55-year-old senator, a former football tight end, finished speaking and walked off the floor. It set the record for the longest continuous Senate floor speech in the chamber’s history, though Booker was assisted by fellow Democrats who gave him a break from speaking by asking him questions on the Senate floor.

---

It was a remarkable show of stamina as Democrats try to show their frustrated supporters that they are doing everything possible to contest Trump’s agenda.

Yet Booker also provided a moment of historical solace for a party searching for its way forward: By standing on the Senate floor for more than a night and day and refusing to leave, he had broken a record set 68 years ago by then Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a segregationist, to filibuster the advance of the Civil Rights Act in 1957.

“I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people are more powerful,” said Booker, who spoke openly on the Senate floor of his roots as the descendant of both slaves and slave-owners.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black party leader in Congress, slipped into the Senate chamber to watch Booker on Tuesday afternoon. He called it “an incredibly powerful moment” because Booker had broken the record of a segregationist and was “fighting to preserve the American way of life and our democracy.”

Still, Booker centered his speech on a call for his party to find its resolve, saying, “We all must look in the mirror and say, We will do better.’” “These are not normal times in our nation,” Booker said as he began the speech Monday evening. “And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”

Booker warns of a looming constitutional crisis
Shifting his feet, then leaning on his podium, Booker railed for hours against cuts to Social Security offices led by Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

He listed the impacts of Trump’s early orders and spoke to concerns that broader cuts to the social safety net could be coming, though Republican lawmakers say the program won’t be touched.

Booker also read what he said were letters from constituents, donning and doffing his reading glasses. One writer was alarmed by the Republican president’s talk of annexing Greenland and Canada and a “looming constitutional crisis.”

Throughout the day Tuesday, Booker got help from Democratic colleagues, who gave him a break from speaking to ask him questions. Booker yielded for questions but made sure to say he would not give up the floor. He read that line from a piece of paper to ensure he did not slip and inadvertently end his speech. He stayed standing to comply with Senate rules.

“Your strength, your fortitude, your clarity has just been nothing short of amazing and all of America is paying attention to what you’re saying,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said as he asked Booker a question on the Senate floor. “All of America needs to know there’s so many problems, the disastrous actions of this administration.”

As Booker stood for hour after hour, he appeared to have nothing more than a couple glasses of water to sustain him. Yet his voice grew strong with emotion as his speech stretched into the evening, and House members from the Congressional Black Caucus stood on the edge of the Senate floor to support Booker.