Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., spoke out against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk on the Senate floor throughout the night after beginning his marathon speech at 7 p.m. Monday.
More than 24 hours later, at 7:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Booker had broken the record for the longest Senate floor speech, before finally calling it quits at 8:05 p.m.
In the lead up to breaking the speech record formerly held by former Sen. Strom Thurmond, D/R-S.C., nearly 70 years ago, Booker yielded to Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., so he could ask the New Jersey Senator a question.
‘Do you know you have just broken the record?’ Schumer asked. ‘Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you know how proud America is of you?’
Everyone in the chamber, besides the press, gave Booker a standing ovation, including those in the gallery and senate pages.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., was seen wiping a tear from her face, while Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., was also seen standing and applauding.
Forty-five minutes later, Booker had concluded his speech.
Booker received some support from other Senate Democrats, whom he allowed to speak at times during his hours-long show of opposition against the Trump administration.
Booker said toward the beginning of his speech that Trump, in 71 days, ‘has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy, and even our aspirations as a people for, from our highest offices, a sense of common decency.’
The senator claimed that the Trump administration and congressional Republicans are targeting Medicaid and Medicare programs to fund tax cuts for billionaires and corporations.
He spent some of his time reading messages from people who wrote about various topics, including concerns about Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Trump has previously indicated that he will not ‘touch’ Americans’ Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits, but wants to weed out fraud.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who said he planned to join Booker ‘for the entirety of his speech,’ noted that he was ‘returning the favor’ as Booker joined him when he ‘launched a filibuster to demand action on gun violence nine years ago.’
Murphy was among the Democrats who provided Booker with some relief by speaking at times to punctuate the marathon session.
In the social media video, Murphy described his colleague’s effort as ‘extraordinary.’
Booker said in a video before he began his demonstration that he plans to continue speaking as long as he is ‘physically able.’
After pontificating for 25 hours, Booker took a brief moment in his office before facing a group of reporters.
He told reporters that despite fasting for days and drinking water, his muscles started to cramp up during the marathon speech. He even said he was tired and sore.
‘There’s just a lot of tactics I was using to make sure that I could stand for that long,’ Booker said.
But when asked if he felt his speech moved the needle in any way and whether Democrats should employ the same tactic going forward to protest the Trump agenda, Booker said he had not had much time to digest and think about it.
‘There’s a lot of people out there asking Democrats to do more and to take risks and do things differently,’ he said. ‘This seemed like the right thing to do, and from what my staff is telling me…a lot of people watched. And so, we’ll see what it is. I just think a lot of us have to do a lot more, including myself.’
Booker said he was aware of Strom Thurmond’s record speech, but always felt it was a strange shadow to hang over in the Senate.
‘All the issues that have come up on noble causes that people have done, or the things it took to try to stop, I just found it strange that he had the record,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to set expectations. [The] mission was really to elevate the voices of Americans to tell some of their really painful stories, very emotional stories, and to let them let go and let God do the rest.’
