Democrats have held the Senate floor for more than 25 hours, breaking Strom Thurmond’s record and giving the longest speech.
US Senator Cory Booker broke the record for the longest speech in US Senate history in his marathon speech to President Donald Trump.
New Jersey’s democratic senator Booker entered the chronicle of history Tuesday after holding the Senator’s floor for more than 25 hours, when late segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond shattered previous records.
Only occasional pauses to ask questions from fellow senators, Booker lasted 25 and 4 minutes, 46 minutes longer than Thurmond’s Civil Rights Act on 1957 Filibuster.
Booker, who failed to make a Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, began his speech on Monday evening by civil rights activists and Rep. John Lewis, calling for Americans to fall into “good trouble, necessary trouble.”
“What’s happened in the last 71 days is that John Lewis’s appeal to everyone will be even more urgent and urgent,” said Booker, former mayor of Newark, who was first elected to the Senate in 2013.
“And if you think that’s a call to our country. I have to ask myself how I live these words. So tonight I’m standing up with the intention of going into ‘good troubles’. I am standing up with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the US Senate as long as I am awake tonight, as long as I am up. ”
In his speech, Booker accused the Trump administration of “recklessly” attacking him and opposed Trump-assisted Elon Musk’s cuts to federal officials, including cutting staffing at the Social Security Agency.
“You do not hint at fear among vulnerable communities, and you do not hint at fear of our elders who deserve our respect and retire with dignity,” Booker said.
A White House spokesman dismissed Booker’s speech as another attempt to create “an “I Am Spartacus” moment.”
“When will he realize he’s not Spartacus? Is he spoofing?” Harrison Fields said in a statement.
When he finished his speech on Tuesday evening, Booker returned to Lewis’ history of civil rights activities.
“He said he had to do something, he wouldn’t normalize a moment like this. He wouldn’t just go with business as usual,” Booker said.