WASHINGTON (AP) — In a feat of determination, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Corey Booker held the Senate floor in a marathon speech that continues all night and Tuesday night, setting a historic mark to show Democrats’ resistance to President Donald Trump’s sweeping actions.
Booker took him to the Senate floor Monday evening and said he would stay there as long as he was “physically.” It was 25 hours later that the 55-year-old senator, a former football tight end, spoke to him from the floor and finished limpinging. It set the longest continuous Senate floor speech record in the Chamber of Commerce history. Booker has taken the help of a fellow Democrat who gave him a break from speaking by questioning him on the Senate floor.
It was an incredible show of stamina as Democrats try to show their annoyed supporters that they are doing everything they can to compete with Trump’s agenda. But Booker also provided a moment of historical comfort for the party looking for advances. By refusing to stand on the Senator’s floor day and night to leave, he defeated South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond 68 years ago, slamming the progress of civil rights in 1957.
“I’m here despite his speech,” Booker said. He added, “Because I’m here, and he was, and people are stronger.”
Haiku’s Democratic leader, Haiku’s Democratic leader, Congress’ first black leader, slid into the Senate room Tuesday afternoon to see Booker. He called it “an incredibly powerful moment.” Because Booker broke separatist records and “fighted to maintain the American way of life and our democracy.”
Still, Booker focused on his speech in his appeal to the party, saying, “We all have to look in the mirror and say, ‘We’ll do better.’
“These are not common in our country,” Booker said as he began his speech Monday evening. “And they shouldn’t be treated that way in the US Senate. The threat to Americans and American democracy is serious and urgent, and we all have to do more to stand up to them.”
Booker warns of “immediate constitutional crisis”
Moving his feet and leaning towards his podium, Booker spent hours helping cuts to the Social Security office led by Trump adviser Elon Musk. He lists the impact of Trump’s early orders and says Republican lawmakers won’t be able to touch the program, but spoke to concerns that wider cuts to the social safety net could come.
Booker also read what he said as a letter from a constituent. One writer was surprised by the Republican president’s speech and “the coming constitutional crisis” about annexing Greenland and Canada.
Throughout Tuesday’s day, Booker got help from his Democratic colleagues. Booker succumbed to the question, but said he wouldn’t give up on the floor. He read the lines from the paper to prevent him from slipping his speech and accidentally finishing the speech. He was standing to follow Senate rules.
“Your strength, your fortitude, your clarity is amazing, and everything in America is paying attention to what you’re saying,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he asked Booker on the Senate floor. “All America needs to know that this administration’s miserable behavior, so many problems.”
As Booker stood for hours, it seemed he had only a few glasses of water to support him. He later told reporters that he had fasted for days before his speech and stopped drinking liquids the night before.
He said he got through the cramps while the day was on. But as his speech spread in the evening, his voice was stronger with emotion, and the Black Caucus House members of Congress stood on the edge of the Senate floor
“Moments like these require us to be more creative or more imaginative or more permanent and dog resolve,” Booker said.
Booker’s cousin, brother, and Democrat aide were seen from the Chamber of Commerce gallery. Senator Chris Murphy accompanied Booker on the Senate floor day and night. Murphy was returning the comrades Booker gave him in 2016, when Connecticut Democrats held the bed for almost 15 hours to discuss gun control laws.
His Senate floor speech breaks Thurmond’s record
Still hours away from breaking Thurmond’s record, Booker said Tuesday afternoon that “I don’t have much gas in the tank.”
But with expectations rising at Capitol, which was replaced by Thurmond, who died in 2003, as the Senate’s longest speech record holder, Democrat senators filled the room to listen, and the Senate gallery was filled with onlookers. The room exploded with applause as Schumer announced Booker had broken the record.
Booker later told reporters that since his arrival in the Senate, he had called Thurmond’s speech “a strange shadow over this agency.”
Through his determined performance, Booker repeatedly called Georgia civil rights leader John Lewis on Tuesday, claiming that overcoming enemies like Thurmond requires more than just talking.
“I think we got civil rights one day. Strom Thurmond, after filibustring 24 hours a day – I think we got civil rights because he came to the floor one day and said, ‘I saw the light,'” Booker said. “No, we got civil rights because people marched for it, sweated, John Lewis spitted it out.”
Booker’s speech was not a filibuster. This is a speech intended to stop the advancement of certain laws. Instead, Booker’s performance is a broader criticism of Trump’s agenda, aimed at paying attention to what Democrats are doing to keep Senate business and contest the president. Without the majority of either Congress, Democrats would have been almost completely locked out of legislative power, but they have turned to procedural manipulations to try to block Republicans.
Can his speech bring anti-Trump resistance?
Booker was serving his second term in the Senate, but failed presidential candidate in 2020 when he launched the campaign from Steps at his Newark home. He dropped out after struggling to gain footing on a packed field, which had not reached the threshold to meet in the January 2020 discussion.
But as Democrats look for next generation leadership and are unhappy with the top old folks, Booker’s speech has managed to solidify his position as a leading figure in the party.
Tens of thousands of people were watching on Booker’s Senate YouTube page and other live streams on Tuesday afternoon. A small group gathered outside the Capitol to cheer him on.
Booker said he ultimately asked all Americans to respond with kindness and generosity to the people in their community, not just resistance to Trump’s actions.
He said, “I might be afraid – my voice might sway – but I’m going to speak more.”
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Reported from Trenton, New Jersey, Catalini was contributed by Matt Brown, a writer for the Associated Press in New Jersey.
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