Senator Cory Booker’s display of endurance -- to hold the floor he had to remain standing and could not even go to the bathroom -- recalled the famous scene in Frank Capra’s 1939 film classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”
Booker, only the fourth Black senator to be popularly elected to the body, blew past that deadline, his voice still strong but emotional as he topped out at 25 hours and five minutes.
“That the longest speech on our great Senate floor was someone who was trying to stop people like me from being in the Senate.”
“This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right. It’s right or wrong,“ Booker said as he wrapped up.
The 55-year-old New Jersey native had found a moment for some humor as he passed the record, joking: “I want to go a little bit past this and then I’m going to deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling.”
Although Booker's talk-a-thon was not actually blocking the majority Republican Party from holding votes in the Senate, as would be the case in a true filibuster, his defiance quickly became a rallying point for beleaguered Democrats.
He lashed out at Trump's radical cost-cutting policies that have seen his top advisor Elon Musk, the world's richest person, slash entire government programs without consent from Congress.
“Unnecessary hardships are being borne by Americans of all backgrounds. And institutions which are special in America, which are precious and which are unique in our country, are being recklessly -- and I would say even unconstitutionally -- affected, attacked, even shattered,“ Booker said.
But he had words of encouragement for Trump opponents, saying as he concluded that “the power of the people is greater than the people in power.”
Booker later went into detail about how he withstood the physical demands of the speech.
The approach “had its benefits and had its really downsides... different muscle groups start to really cramp up” with dehydration, he added.
Democratic lawmakers, in the minority in both the Senate and House of Representatives, have struggled over how to blunt Trump's efforts to downsize government, ramp up deportations and shred much of the country's political norms.
Booker dedicated much of his speech to criticizing Trump's policies, but to pass the time he also recited poetry, discussed sports and entertained questions from colleagues.
“If you love your neighbor, if you love this country, show your love. Stop them from doing what they’re trying to (do),“ he said.
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