Senator Cory Booker, obviously tired but still standing upright on the podium on the Senate floor, showed his body and speech endurance in a marathon speech criticizing the Trump administration on Tuesday, showing his hopes for his “crisis” he faces under Trump’s leadership.
Mr. Booker, a Democrat in New Jersey, began speaking at 7 p.m. Monday but still began speaking 21 hours later, introducing the Trump administration’s cuts on administration services and its crackdown on immigration.
“This is incorrect, right or wrong,” Mr. Booker said Tuesday afternoon. His voice was still strong. “This is not a partisan moment, it is a moral moment. Where are you standing?”
The speech was part of Democrats’ efforts to retake the initiative and to oppose President Trump with greater confidence. Mr Booker divided his remarks into sections focusing on government policy aspects, including health care, education, immigration and national security.
By Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Booker seemed desperate to break the record set by Senator Strom Thurmond, who published a 24-hour and 18-minute fillibuster in 1957 against a civil rights legislation. According to Booker's office, Mr. Booker already wants to give a marathon speech at the marathon, and he has long troubled South Carolina segregator Mr. Thurmond keeps the record. (The longest-timed journal of the Senate speech did not return to the establishment of the country, but Mr. Thurmond was the longest.)
Mr. Booker’s speech is not a taboo, it is a procedural strategy to block many issues as it is not in the debate about a particular bill or nominee. But that did postpone a planned vote on a Democratic-led bill to remove Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Canada.
“My intention is to undermine normal business in the U.S. Senate,” Mr. Booker said at the beginning of his speech on Monday. “I rose tonight because I sincerely believe that our country is in crisis.”
He attacked what he said was Mr. Trump's plan to cut Medicaid funds, among other plans. The White House denied that it planned to cut Medicaid benefits, but the president and his allies attacked Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security for their alleged waste, fraud and abuse.
Mr. Booker, without a restroom, stopped occasionally to encourage his Democrats’ questions, read from notes, and waved a small piece of the American Constitution. His voice became hoarse throughout the hour. But it continues to thrive.
Mr. Booker wandered on a podium and paused several times to allow questions from Democrats, including Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, without formally giving up the floor. At the angle, Mr. Booker's voice seemed to break.
“My voice is enough,” Mr. Booker said, “My efforts today are not enough to stop what they are trying to do. But our people are very strong. ”
Mr. Booker said on social media that he would go to the Senate because Mr. Trump and billionaire Elon Musk were among the president’s top advisers, showing what he called “complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution, the Constitution and the needs of the American people.”
Mr. Musk's feed on his social media platform X was active on Tuesday, but no mention of Mr. Booker or his overnight speech. Nor is Mr. Trump’s truth social feed.
As thousands of viewers followed on Mr. Booker’s official YouTube channel, he quoted famous speeches representing John Lewis and Senator John McCain, who both died. At one point, he spent about 30 minutes reading the account of Canadian citizen Jastian Mooney, involving her account detained by immigration law enforcement officers in the United States.
Many (defined as lasting 4 4 a.m.) have been over 24 hours in the 48 overnight sessions in the room since 1915. Senator Ted Cruz's verbal attack on President Barack Obama in 2013's Barack Obama lasted 21,019 minutes.
Mr Booker will pass Mr Cruz at 4:20 pm on Tuesday and surpass Mr Thurmond's Senate record three hours after that.
Maya C. Miller and Robert Jimison Contribution report.
