Cory Booker breaks record for longest speech by US senator in Trump condemnation

Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, has broken the record for longest speech ever by a lone senator – beating the record first established by Strom Thurmond, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Booker’s speech, which began at 7pm on Monday night, was not a filibuster but instead an effort to warn of what he called the “grave and urgent” danger that Donald Trump’s presidential administration poses to democracy and the American people.

“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” Booker said near the start of his speech. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our nation is in crisis.”

Booker said that he has heard endless stories of “pain and fear” from constituents who are both Democrats and Republicans due to the Trump administration’s policies.

“Institutions that are special in America, that are unique in our country, are being recklessly – and I would say unconstitutionally – affected, attacked and even shattered,” Booker said.

“In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy and even our aspirations as a people for, from our highest offices, a sense of common decency.

“These are not normal times in America and they should not be treated as such. I can’t allow this body to continue without doing something. The threats to America’s democracy are grave and urgent.”

Emphasizing the roll Congress should play to hold the executive branch accountable, Booker decried his fellow congressmembers for failing to vote against the president’s cabinet nominees and other policies.

“The most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world have taken a battle axe to the Veterans’ Association, a battle axe to the Department of Education, a battle axe to the only agency solely focused on protecting consumers against big banks and other factors that might abuse them,” he said. “What will we do in this body? What will we do in the House of Representatives? Right now the answer is nothing.”

As he approached a full day of speaking, Booker began to stumble slightly in his speech, but was still on his feet, making sweeping gestures as he spoke.

Booker evoked the Founding Fathers, Civil Rights leaders and lawmakers who stood up against McCarthyism in his calls for congressmembers to more assertively hold the Trump administration accountable.

Yielding to a question from Connecticut senator Chris Murphy, while retaining the floor, Booker rested a moment while Murphy recounted the longest speech in Senate history, given in 1957 by Republican senator Strom Thurmond to filibuster the Civil Rights Act.

“What you have done here today Senator Booker couldn’t be more different than what occurred on this floor in 1957,” he said. “Strom Thurmond was standing in the way of inevitable progress.” He added: “Today, you are standing in the way not of progress but of retreat.”

Booker’s speech is not technically a filibuster as he is not trying to run down the Senate’s time to prevent a piece of legislation from passing.

Instead, he has used his speaking slot to decry the Trump administration’s spending cuts, its attempt to abolish the Department of Education, the president’s attempts to bypass the judicial system and the removal of people from the US who speak out against the administration.

Booker’s speech has been supported with reams of quotes from speeches by the late American politicians John McCain and John Lewis, as well as excerpts from newspaper articles.

Some of the senator’s fellow Democrats have helped support him during his monologues, with several asking questions that have allowed Booker to have a break without yielding the floor.

The Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, was the first to pose a question to his New Jersey colleague, and he praised Booker for his “strength and conviction”.

“You’re taking the floor tonight to bring up all these inequities that will hurt people, that will so hurt the middle class, that will so hurt poor people, that will hurt America, hurt our fiscal conditions, as you document,” Schumer said in his own question to Booker.

“Just give us a little inkling of the strength – give us a little feeling for the strength and conviction that drive you to do this unusual taking of the floor for a long time to let the people know how bad these things are going to be.”

At one point, Booker spoke about the need for bipartisanship and mentioned a recent dinner he had with Ted Cruz, the arch-conservative Republican senator from Texas. Cruz is no stranger to marathon speeches, having spoken for more than 21 hours in 2013 in an attempt to filibuster an expansion of Medicaid eligibility. At one point, Cruz read from Green Eggs and Ham, the Dr Seuss children’s book.

Around his 20th hour of speaking, Booker offered an apology to his fellow Democrats for the current political climate, saying: “I confess that I’ve been inadequate. That the Democrats have been responsible for allowing the rise of this demagogue.”