ANALYSIS: In a marathon speech in the Senate chamber, New Jersey senator called for action to oppose Trump’s agenda – and his filibuster was his own version of that, Richard Hall writes.
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As he reached the 14th hour of his historic speech on Tuesday morning, Senator Cory Booker found a second wind.
“This is the people's house. It's Article One of the Constitution, and it's under assault!” he said with a raised voice, explaining what had motivated him to take his extraordinary action.
“Our spending powers, our budgetary powers, the power to establish agencies like the Department of Education and USAID, it's under assault by a president that doesn't respect this document,” he continued.
Booker, an avuncular 55-year-old senator from New Jersey, began speaking from his desk in the Senate chamber at 7 p.m. on Monday evening, promising to talk “for as long as I am physically able” to protest the policies of Donald Trump’s unprecedented second term.
In what he described as “America’s moral moment,” Booker criticized the Trump administration for its “complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the needs of the American people.”
"I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis,” he said. “I believe that not in a partisan sense, because so many of the people that have been reaching out to my office in pain, in fear, having their lives upended — so many of them identify themselves as Republicans.”
In this image provided by Senate Television, Senator Cory Booker speaks on the Senate floor, Tuesday morning, April 1, 2025.open image in gallery
In this image provided by Senate Television, Senator Cory Booker speaks on the Senate floor, Tuesday morning, April 1, 2025. (AP)
Booker was still there Tuesday morning, looking tired and wired but still engaged in his suit and black tie, pacing around the podium with his glasses in his hand.
"I've got fuel in the tank man,” he insisted at 10 a.m., some 15 hours in.
At the time of writing, he had just passed 22 hours of speaking, and was hours away from making history.
The record for the longest speech in Congress is held by Strom Thurmond, a segregationist Democrat who filibustered for more than 24 hours in 1957 in an effort to block the Civil Rights Act.
Booker, the first Black senator for New Jersey, may soon break it.
In his wide-ranging but targeted speech, the senator painted a picture of an administration that was corrupt, venal and chaotic. Pulling facts and figures from binders prepared by his staff, separated by issue, he laid into Trump’s close advisor and tech billionaire Elon Musk, and the “oligarchy” that surrounded Trump, warning of looming cuts to Social Security and Medicaid that would hit the country’s poorest.
He read poetry, Bible verses, quoted song lyrics and senators and generals to keep control of the floor. He drew from speeches by iconic American figures such as Harriet Tubman, John McCain and John Lewis. The longer he continued, the more alliterative he became.
Booker read personal stories of people impacted by Trump’s policies — among them a long account by a Canadian woman who was detained by immigration authorities for 12 days. His voice broke occasionally as he read those stories of hardship.
“These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such,” he said.
Booker, who mounted a short-lived run for president in 2020, has not left the chamber the entire time, even for a bathroom break, according to his colleague Senator Chris Murphy. His only respite from speaking was to hear questions from fellow Democrats, who lined up to show support for Booker’s protest and join the condemnation of Trump.
Sen. Cory Booker speaks as Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Justice Department as attorney general, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025.open image in gallery
Sen. Cory Booker speaks as Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Justice Department as attorney general, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, was among them.
“Your strength, your fortitude, your clarity, has just been nothing short of amazing, and all of America is paying attention to what you're saying,” he told Booker.
While not technically a filibuster — a form of protest in which a lawmaker holds the floor of the legislative chamber in order to delay a vote — Booker’s speech did disrupt the work of the Senate, which was due to convene at midday.
His protest was both a sign of desperation and a call to arms.
Seventy-one days into Trump’s second term, the Democratic Party has struggled to find a common or coherent response to his agenda. The party has been overwhelmed by the sweeping Executive Orders to dismantle government agencies and deport immigrants – still fighting over how they lost the last election.
The Democratic base has been screaming for its leaders to do something, anything, to put the brakes on the Trump administration’s policies, while growing increasingly frustrated with the disconnectedness of its aging leadership.
Some of that energy has been directed towards Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have made their party’s leaders look impotent as they have held huge rallies across the country in protest against Trump.
At the same time, Trump has faced little to no opposition from his own party as he has tested the limits of presidential power, which has made Congress seem more irrelevant and powerless than it has in decades.
It was perhaps with all of that in mind that Booker, a known admirer of the Senate process, chose the chamber to make his stand. But he did so with an acknowledgment of its limits.
US President Donald Trump takes part in an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 31 March 2025.open image in gallery
US President Donald Trump takes part in an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 31 March 2025. (EPA/ALEXANDER DRAGO / POOL)
“How do we stop them? I'm sorry to say we hold powerful positions. We are elected by great states, but we're in the minority right now,” he said. “It will take three people of conscience on that side,” he added, pointing to the Republican side of the chamber to highlight the GOP’s control.
Booker repeatedly invoked the Constitution as he railed against Trump, occasionally appealing to the president’s own supporters.
“He promised to lower your grocery prices — they're higher. He promised to be a better steward of the economy — it's worse than what he inherited. Over and over, he's breaking promises and doing outrageous things like disappearing people off of American streets, violating fundamental principles of this document,” he said.
As he approached 20 hours, Booker became emotional but spirited as he invoked protest movements of America’s past and called for action.
“What do I want from my fellow Americans? Do better than me, do better than we, in this body. We are flawed and failed people,” he said.
“My voice is inadequate. My efforts today are inadequate to stop what they're trying to do. But we, the people, are powerful. We are strong. We have changed history. We have bent the arc of the moral universe. And now is that moral moment again.”