Senator Cory Booker began speaking on the Senate floor in protest of President Donald Trump’s policies at 7 p.m. on March 31. He didn’t stop for another 25 hours and four minutes.
That means that Booker now holds the Senate record for all-time longest floor speech, beating out a record that had been held by Strom Thurmond for nearly 70 years. Thurmond’s 24 hour and 18 minute speech had been in protest of the Civil Rights Act of 1957; Booker’s speech, which has detailed practically every possible criticism of the Trump administration and the modern Republican Party, surpassed that astonishing record by nearly an hour.
Booker said when the speech began, and repeatedly emphasized through the night of March 31 and into the day on April 1, that he felt compelled to stand and speak in order to make it clear how politicians and the public cannot proceed with business as usual under Trump. He would remain speaking for “as long as he is physically able,” he said, to grind the gears of Congress to a halt and demonstrate how unacceptable he believes Trump’s actions to be.
“These are not normal times in our nation,” he said in the early minutes of his speech. “And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent and we all must do more to stand against them.”
Unlike many prior lengthy Senate speeches and filibusters, Booker was not blocking or advocating for any particular bill or measure. There is no direct legislative action that can be taken in response to what Booker has said – and even if there was, the Republicans who control the Senate and House likely wouldn’t be very interested in taking it up.
But Booker’s intention was to put himself and his arguments into the national conversation, and in that sense his mission has been a grand success. Millions of people watched Booker’s speech at various points throughout the day and on various platforms, and millions more will undoubtedly learn about it from evening news shows and newspapers.
He also has the added bonus of thoroughly disrupting Senate business. Senate Republicans had likely hoped to proceed with normal business today and continue confirming Trump’s lower-level nominees, but Booker’s speech essentially nullified an entire day in the Senate calendar. (It was a disruption that came at the cost of Booker’s own bodily health; he had been fasting since Friday and did not drink anything leading up to the speech in order to obviate the necessity of bathroom trips, which he said led to severe cramping.)
Booker’s speech revolved around Trump, but it touched on a colossal array of issues: health care, democracy, the rule of law, military veterans, the Department of Government Efficiency, civility in politics, agriculture policies, tariffs, foreign aid, immigration, education, Social Security, federal research funding, and much, much more.
“That’s why we’re here,” he said at 8:20 a.m. this morning, a little over 13 hours into his speech. “No business as usual. No business as usual. We’re not doing the normal order. We’re talking about these things. We’re making the case. We talked about immigration, we talked about Medicaid, we talked about Medicare, we talked about health care, we talked about medical research, we talked about Social Security, we’re marching through, we’re marching through.”
The senator also called in assists from around three dozen of his Senate Democratic colleagues, who were allowed to ask Booker questions as long as Booker remained standing and ready to answer. (Booker recited a constant refrain in order to allow other senators to ask him questions while not technically interrupting his continuous speech: “I will yield for a question while retaining the floor.”)
Among those who stepped in to help Booker: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois); Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), whom Booker assisted during his 14-hour-and-50-minute gun control filibuster in 2016; and fellow New Jersey Senator Andy Kim, who talked with Booker about Trump’s failure to fulfill the “American promise.” For the final hour of his speech, nearly the entire Senate Democratic caucus had gathered in the chamber to watch, and they (as well as the many gathered observers in the gallery) burst out in applause when he reached the 24 hour, 19 minute mark.
Throughout the night and into the day, Booker continually surpassed records and put his speech higher and higher into the ranks of Senate filibusters (though, given the business the Senate was conducting at the time Booker began, it may not technically be a filibuster). At 9:51 a.m., he beat Murphy’s speech from 2016; at 4:19 p.m., he surpassed Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas)’s famous 2013 filibuster against Obamacare; and at 6:31 p.m., he beat Senator Al D’Amato (R-New York)’s 1986 marathon.
Finally, the only record left to beat was Thurmond’s 1957 diatribe against federal guarantees of voting rights for African Americans. And for Booker, still one of only a handful of African Americans ever elected to the Senate, the prospect of being the one to finally put Thurmond’s record to bed took on an added layer of meaning.
“I am here in this body because of past generations that fought to uphold the Constitution, not because the Constitution was real to them, but because they brought reality and hope and love and promise to the Constitution,” Booker said at around the 23-hour mark. “They were Americans that said, like Langston Hughes, America never was America to me, but I swear this oath: America will be.”
Booker told reporters after his speech concluded that he did, indeed, have Thurmond’s unfortunate legacy in mind when he embarked on his speaking journey.
“I was very aware of Strom Thurmond’s record since I got to the Senate,” Booker said. “I always felt that it was a strange shadow hanging over this institution… As a guy who grew up with legends of of the Civil Rights movement myself, my parents and their friends, it always seemed wrong to me.”
More than that, though, Booker said he was motivated by a desire to show that Democrats can fight back and make a case against Trump, as many of their voters have been demanding that they do.
“A lot of people out there are asking us to do more, to take risks and do things differently,” Booker said. “This seemed like the right thing to do.”
This story was updated after Booker’s speech concluded, and again after Booker spoke with reporters.
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