Sen. Cory Booker’s marathon ‘filibuster’ against Trump agenda goes on and on and … finally ends after he breaks Senate record
He’s a legend in his own mind.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) attempted another?“I am Spartacus” moment?for himself on the floor of the upper chamber — holding the Senate hostage for?more than 25 hours?as part of a marathon “filibuster” session opposing President Trump’s agenda in Congress.
“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” Booker began a little after 7 p.m. Monday. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.”
Booker’s speech?– not technically a filibuster, since he is not opposing any specific legislation –?clocked in at 25 hours and 5 minutes,?breaking the Senate record for the longest floor speech.?
The Senate chamber erupted in applause when Booker’s remarks finally concluded.
“This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right. It’s right or wrong. Let’s get in good trouble. My friend, madam president, I yield the floor,” the Garden State senator said at the end of his speech.
Booker’s grandstanding verbosity comes after the Democrat tried to turn the 2018 Senate nomination hearings involving now-US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh into a circus by demanding the release of emails already in the public domain — claiming, “This is the closest I’ll get to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.”
The quote referred to the 1960 Oscar-winning movie starring Kirk Douglas as the leader of a slave revolt.
Booker, 55,?railed?against congressional Republicans’ upcoming tax, energy, border and defense bill; tariffs; Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost-cutting and Trump’s battles with the federal judiciary.
“The president and Elon Musk need to keep their hands off of [Social Security],” Booker lashed out at one point, referring to the DOGE chief’s recent actions trumpeted in Wisconsin on Sunday. “It’s not theirs to take, and it’s not theirs to break.”
The former Newark mayor also dubbed his stalling effort “good trouble” in the tradition of a civil rights icon, the late Rep. John Lewis (R-Ga.), as he denounced “tax breaks that disproportionately go to the wealthiest,” which he claimed would boost the national deficit.
He also read from speeches from the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and opinion pieces by right-leaning critics of Trump’s tariff plans, including the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board.
Before Booker’s stunt, the?longest Senate speech in US history was recorded by segregationist Strom Thurmond during his 1957 speech opposing the Civil Rights Act.
A Democratic senator from South Carolina at the time, Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes.
“I was very aware of Strom Thurmond’s record since I’ve gotten to the Senate,” Booker told reporters after setting the new mark. “I always felt it was a strange shadow hanging over this institution.”
Booker also went after the Trump admin for pulling funding from woke Ivy League universities such as Columbia, which recently had $400 million of its federal grants and contracts frozen.
“Even with universities that got too woke,” Booker said, “the antidote to that isn’t to try and shut down the thought of the left, it’s to try to make a fair, more competitive marketplace.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the harshest critics of the Trump administration, served at points as Booker’s “wingman” during breaks from the floor speech.
Booker wore a black suit with a white shirt and black tie during the speech — and frequently opened a binder of quotes he brought as backup.
Tuesday morning, as lawmakers were returning to Capitol Hill, Booker was growing emotional reading letters from constituents about their Social Security needs and reciting the poetry of James Weldon Johnson, who led the NAACP in the early 20th century.
“I yield the floor for a question, while retaining the floor,” he sputtered while tagging in Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) briefly. “Excuse me, I want to say that correctly. I yield for a question while retaining the floor. I do not yield the floor.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) snarked on X in response, “Is anyone listening?”
Alexandra De Luca, the VP of communications at American Bridge 21st Century, added, “I worked for Cory Booker on the campaign trail and (and I say this with love) that man drinks enough caffeine on a normal day to stay up 72 hours. This could go a while.”
Senate rules provided Booker the opportunity to speak as long as he was able, but shortly after eclipsing Thurmond’s record, the senator quipped: “I want to go a little bit past this, and then I’m gonna, I’m gonna deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling.”
Additional reporting by Victor Nava.
