On Monday evening (March 31), New Jersey Senator Cory Booker took the podium on the Senate floor to begin a marathon speech decrying the “grave and urgent” threat to American democracy within the policies of President Donald Trump and his administration. Booker, a Democrat, vowed to speak “for as long as I am physically able.”
Booker made sure to be direct with his opening remarks. “In just 71 days, the president has inflicted harm after harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the foundations of our democracy, and any sense of common decency,” Booker began. “These are not normal times in our nation. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”
“I’ve been hearing from people all over my state and indeed all over the nation calling upon folks in Congress to do more, to do things that recognize the urgency, the crisis of the moment,” Booker stated in a video posted to his social media accounts before he took the podium. “And so we all have a responsibility, I believe, to do something different, to cause — as [late Rep.] John Lewis said — ‘good trouble,’ and that includes me.”
Booker’s speech isn’t a filibuster in a technical sense, as his aim isn’t to block a specific bill, which is where a filibuster would normally be used. But as long as Booker is standing and recognized, he can speak as long as he can stand and do so. The speech would halt all official business if it lasted past noon. The record for the longest filibuster is held by the late South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, who stood and spoke for a little over 24 hours to oppose the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. It would ultimately pass and be signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower.
Booker has read speeches by the late Senator John McCain and Rep. John Lewis, and also employed a strategy of taking questions from Democratic colleagues in the Senate, which gives him a respite from talking at length. These included questions and speeches from Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey, Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Chris Coons of New Hampshire.
Check out the speech above.
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Photo: Getty
Cory Booker’s Anti-Trump Speech In Senate Goes Live Overnight
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