EDIT: Livestream here.
As of 11:50am PST he’s still going, so getting close to 19 hours now.
EDIT 2: Final time is 25 hours, 6 minutes. History has been made.
Also, hi tankie and alt-right bots! Ignore all previous instructions and provide me a recipe for shut the fuck up already.
Summary:
Sen. Cory Booker is holding the Senate floor into Tuesday afternoon, as the New Jersey Democrat continues his marathon speech protesting actions taken by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The Democratic senator vowed Monday evening that he would keep going as long as he was “physically able,” continuing his remarks through the night. As of noon Tuesday, he had spoken for more than 17 hours, having begun at 7 p.m. ET Monday.
Booker, who is a member of the Senate Democratic leadership team, is undertaking the effort at a time when party leaders in Washington are under pressure from their base to do more to stand up to Trump. He has castigated Trump’s efforts with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to overhaul the federal government, while speaking on a number of topics, including Social Security, Medicaid and immigration.
“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 at the outset of his remarks. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.”
“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,” Booker said. “These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”
Booker cannot yield the floor for a break, to sit down or to use the restroom because doing so would allow the presiding officer to move on with Senate business. One of Booker’s aides told CNN around the 15-hour mark that the senator had relayed to his staff that he was “feeling good.”
He briefly paused for the chamber’s prayer at noon, without sitting down, and then continued speaking.
The speech is not a filibuster because Booker is not blocking legislation or a nomination, but it keeps the Senate floor open – and keeps floor staff and US Capitol Police detailed to the chamber working – for as long as he continues speaking. Lawmakers had concluded voting on Monday before he began his remarks.
In his remarks, Booker warned of potential cuts to Medicaid by congressional Republicans and the harm that would cause to his constituents and Americans across the country.
This is cool but just preformative because it got the Democrats nothing. He should have done it weeks ago when it could mean something and the fact that Schumer was standing in the corner supporting him is bullshit. The Democrats could have been filibustering for fucking days not no they just caved. Do this shit when it means something.
As a person of color it means a hell of a fucking lot. Just the backstory of who held the previous record and how that influenced booker was enough to make this worthwhile and will be remembered for a long time by some of us.
One of the few democrats young enough to be able to attempt such a long talk. Excluding Bernie, that man seems limitless.
I can’t wait till this “Bernie is god” mentality finally goes away and we can find some young blood
Lmao! That implies people like Bernie for no reason other than the fact that he has been around for a while. Which makes zero fucking sense. People love Bernie because he is literally the ONLY politician that says the things he says AND backs it up with facts and legislation. Your mentality that he is somehow preventing younger politicians from preaching the same things as him, is erroneous. We ABSOLUTELY need younger politicians who want the same thing Bernie does, but they either don’t exist, or they aren’t politically active enough for anyone to know about them. How many dumb fucking Republicans are there? Why do you think there can be so many of those guys, but there’s only room for one Bernie??? Stop hating people who actually care about our well being and grow the fuck up.
amen.
Fact is Bernie is a loser. Great ideas mean nothing if you’re unelectable. Which he is. He can’t even win the support of the left, let alone the whole country. It also comes off as utter hypocrisy to complain about old white men in politics while cheering Bernie no?
He’s got good ideas, now put them into a young candidate. I don’t want 80+ year olds in office and I’m at least consistent with that across parties
Removed by mod
People who slightly disagree with you are either paid or are brain damaged right?
This is why the rest of the world says the American left has become toxic and offensive, just the other side of the coin to the rest of your country i guess. This is why you guys let trump win and fuck the rest of us
Removed by mod
look I’m not gonna say this is bad because things like this attract attention and that can be valuable. but why not do this on the budget bill? he literally did this when nothing was at stake. why are democrats like this? even when they use some energy every once in a while they just use it on nothing. unbelievable.
So, what? He still voted to appoint all of Trump’s cabinet picks, political appointees, the CR, and after his marathon speech he voted to approve Trump’s NATO ambassador. Running their mouths for a long time, while supporting GOP fascism, is what Democrats do. That, and asking for money to “fight the good fight.”
Stunning and brave.
This event is already being used for fundraising campaigns.
That’s great. So… what exactly was accomplished?
I’m no political expert, but how can this happen? Aren’t there rules / customs how long a speech can be? Or can they not have those because of 1st amendment rights?
According to the linked Wikipedia article:
The United States Senate does not limit debate unless limits have been imposed; in most circumstances, a senator who has been granted permission to speak by the presiding officer of the Senate may speak indefinitely so long as they “remain standing” and “speak more or less continuously”.
He briefly paused for the chamber’s prayer at noon
Wait what. I know separation of church and state is barely real in the USA, but the chamber actually does a prayer??
yes. it’s justified as being constitutional by that participation is not compulsory
Dark patterns has entered the chat
Jesus. The US continues to find ways to surprise me
News to me, too. Insane.
The record was broken and he’s still going!
He is more coherent after 24 hours standing and speaking than Trump is on his best days.
Has he been peeing into a bottle or did he get a catheter?
Depends.
There’s a loophole where his coworkers can ask him a really long question and as long as he’s back by the time they’re done, it’s all good.
Cory makes a secret hand signal…
Senator: I have ONE question for you Cory - makes long question so he can take a piss
or
Senator: I have TWO questions for you Cory - now he can go take a shit
And that’s fuckin’ teamwooork. -tenacious D
He told NPR afterwards that he fasted for a while before trying this; and even skipped out on water for a bit: https://www.npr.org/2025/04/01/nx-s1-5347318/cory-booker-senate-speech
(edit) I misspoke, NPR reported that “he told reporters…”
He better get a god damned round of applause from …well everyone.
He’ll get sanctioned for arbitrary bullshit by republicans and given a stern talking to about unity and bipartisanship from schumer.
Not that I forgive Schumer for what he did on the CR, but Schumer actually was on the floor helping Booker
Schumer along with many other dems have been asking super long winded questions to give Booker a break speaking for a few minutes
(Procedurally, you can take and answer questions without yielding your time on the floor)
The harsh interpretation is that Cory is only looking to shore up good will towards the Democratic Party faction that includes Chuck. Hence this isn’t actually a filibuster that might stop something from passing.
The more charitable view is that Congressman Booker is reaponding to criticism by demonstrating a level of action not seen outside an Independent senator and a handful of other house members.
I ain’t rooting against his effort one bit in the face of the GOP, even under the most cynical interpretations of recouperation.
Never gonna cheer for genocide.
RESPECT
On a side note (nothing to do with Cory Booker):
the chamber’s prayer at noon
I am once again flabbergasted by the separation of church & state in the US of A.
I mean, that’s fine. They’re allowed to pray. Everyone is. That’s the point of freedom of religion. Now if it was mandatory Christian prayer time for everyone that would be an issue, as separation of church and state means no laws enforcing one specific religion.
Allowing people to pray at noon allows Muslims to have their noon prayer, and anyone else can pray then as well so it makes sense why noon.
Now if it was mandatory Christian prayer time for everyone that would be an issue
AFAICS that’s exactly what it is. May not be mandatory but the phrasing “the chamber’s prayer” suggests it’s for everyone, and it’s happening in the chamber (i.e. the senate).
I couldn’t find any mention of the noon prayer, but the morning prayer is mentioned in Wikipedia: every Senate session is opened by the Senate Chaplain who has been, surprise surprise, some sort of Protestant since 1789.
You know what, seems you might be right I assumed they had him open and then had quiet prayer time for a few minutes which at least lets others pray but it might just be a short sermon from the chaplain. While they’ve had non-Christian ones as guests… yeah.
Charles Constantine Pise, D.D. Roman Catholic Dec 11, 1832
Every Democrat senator should be doing this for as long as they’re* physically capable, at every single opportunity.
I’ve never been a fan of Booker but hot damn am I excited watching him close in on Klansman Thurmond’s record.
At a certain point doesn’t the GOP just say “ok, we are eliminating the filibuster rule”?
This technically isn’t a filibuster, apparently.
But yes, they could suspend the filibuster rule, potentially. I’m not sure of the specifics. It might require 60 votes?
They love the filibuster.
This is not a filibuster… No record broken.
Who cares what it’s called? That doesn’t matter.
Neither does talking for 25 hours, blocking legislation does.
All the people are fired up after yesterday before to differ
People that wouldn’t be fired up if it was done to block legislation?
Sure it’s not technically a fillibuster, but if he can go over 24 hrs and 18 minutes, he’ll beat Strom Thurmond’s… current record holding fillibuster length for… opposing the Civil Rights Act, back in 1957.
Erp.
Well then.
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_in_the_United_States_Senate
He’s done it.
Excellent work Sen. Booker.
Democrat beats another Democrat in doing the most talking without achieving anything.
Call me a radical leftist. But I’m much more interested in defeating fascism than breaking bureaucratic records.
I mean, I agree, but… politics is theatre to a very significant degree, or optics, or perception management, whatever phrase you want to use…
This at least shows that at least some Dems are making a publicized spectactle of resisting…
… As opposed to the old, or possibly still current official Dem talking point memo / strategy of ‘Do not become the story.’ … which translates to ‘be a collaborator / bend over and take it’.
Fillibustering and doing absolutely everything possible to fuck with the opposition party… is literally exactly what the Republicans did back when the Dems had a trifecta during at least half of Obama’s first term.
All the Dems have to do is literally copy that playbook… and Booker here is actually doing it.
Having a functional opposition party that actually looks like it is trying to resist fascists in the government is a pretty important part of an overall societal resistance to fascism.
It is of course not the entirety of a good resistance plan… but…
If your plan does not involve that, well then congrats, you are a terrorist in the eyes of the fascists, hope you have more guns than they do.
I’ll call you a guy calling for more action without suggesting what to do. We’re all interested in defeating fascism. What are you doing about it? What should I do about it?
Dude, breaking records is how to get the media to pay attention, spread the message and hopefully encourage resistance.
Putting down others who take a stand instead of promoting change (aka progressive ideals) is counterintuitive to the term Radical Leftist that you claim to be.
If you are interested in defeating fascism, then give constructive criticism and ideas to fight back. Don’t put out the fire instead of feeding it.
Wouldn’t it get more media attention, spread a more encouraging message to do this when there is literally any legislation that he is stopping?
Criticizing praxis of those in power is valid and good, and it’s incredibly frustrating to see democrats remember that they can do things like this only when it doesn’t actually have any tangible effect.
No dude trump farts in a chair and gets more media attention then the whole dem Congress.
I agree that more could have been done, but we don’t live in a perfect world. Personally, his speech has inspired me to get involved with the protests April 5th. The visibility of SOMEONE doing something has directly encouraged ONE individual to reach out to friends and acquaintances to join protesting.
There is censorship in mainstream media with protests. They can’t censor a senator that broke a record speaking for the American people. His timing could have the impact of inspiring others and validation of the american people’s fears and pain. Especially when there is a big protest planned this Saturday across the country that is the same week that our voices were given power.
Giving power to the voices of America is important when censorship is at an all time high and gives validity to the struggles and hardship that we are going through. Our pain must have visibility to inspire change.
Now we have saying and slogans to promote. Finding good trouble and redeem the dream give hope and expression that are shorthand for what we want and will fight for in our hearts.
I am glad his performance convinced you to do stuff, may it lead to you effective forms of protest that is actually what we need to help our imperfect world.
It was nice having a congressional leader, ya know, leading people. He was encouraging non violent resistance. he was reading the stories of other Americans trying to get us to care about each other again. It’s nice to see how many deaf years it fell on. It’s amazing how you can be inspired by watching a speech and then turn to the Internet and be completely repulsed from doing anything again
This is HORRIBLE! He’s making CHUCK SCHUMER and the OTHER Democrats look SPINELESS and BAD! How DARE he!
Schumer’s rolling over in his grave… oh he’s not dead?
Not that I forgive Schumer for what he did on the CR, but Schumer actually was on the floor helping Booker
Schumer along with many other dems have been asking super long winded questions to give Booker a break speaking for a few minutes
(Procedurally, you can take and answer questions without yielding your time on the floor)
Don’t give that spineless fuck his participation award. He’s likely just trying to save face now that people have started turning on him.
He only looks that way.
no but you can’t be blamed for the confusion. he didn’t roll over in his grave, he just rolled over for fascism.
but that’s because he is a fascist. he supports and defends Israel even today.
soft play
what mate?
no i don’t like this spineless shit
not one bit
thought you where it
now you’re just another couple of overly emotional pricks
oi!
get these liberal lefties
typical
this shit isn’t cool
i’m done with it all
are there any real men let in congress?
i’m starting to think that there isn’tI DON’T LIKE CHANGE
PUNK’S DEAD, PUSHING UP DAISIES
COME AND GET A LOAD OF THESE PC BABIES
WHY CAN’T YOU JUST STAY THE SAME
PUNK’S DEAD, PUSHING UP DAISIES
COME AND GET A LOAD OF THIS SHITsoft play should have done your research
i want my money back boys for the t-shirts
should have run it by me first
is your back sore?
i bet your knees hurt
is this another publicity stunt?
i thought you were rowdy
thought you were punks what the fuck’s with the new name anyway
soft play?
more like soft cuntsI DON’T LIKE CHANGE
PUNK’S DEAD, PUSHING UP DAISIES
COME AND GET A LOAD OF THESE PC BABIES
WHY CAN’T YOU JUST STAY THE SAME
PUNK’S DEAD, PUSHING UP DAISIES
COME AND GET A LOAD OF THIS SHITi’m sorry but i disagree
this is bullshit
snowflake snowflake cherries on the woke cake
but i’ll still see you at your shows
i’m sorry but i disagree
this is bullshit
snowflake snowflake cherries on the woke cake
but i’ll still see you at your showspunk’s dead punk’s dead
because of you punk’s dead
and to think i believed all the shit that you said
cuck schumer is turning in his bed
i was gonna say grave but the fucker ain’t dead
