Top moments from Booker's 25-hour speech
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Sen. Cory Booker at the U.S. Capitol on March 4. Photo: Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images
Sen. Cory Booker's (D-N.J.) epic speech this week broke records for length, and he didn't waste any of that time straying from message.
The big picture: The former presidential candidate spoke about policy for more than 25 hours — in contrast to past such speeches that relied on stunts to keep the timer ticking.
- Booker spent the marathon Senate session protesting President Trump's policies and the effects of Elon Musk's and DOGE's federal cost-cutting efforts on agencies and people's jobs.
Flashback: Former Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957 with a 24-hour and 18-minute speech that included reading a phonebook to pass time.
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) spoke for 21 hours and 19 minutes in 2013 in opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Aside from his criticisms of former President Obama's health care law, Cruz used his speech to read Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" and talked about Star Wars and White Castle.
Between the lines: Not only did Booker surpass those records Tuesday, he did so while staying on message.
Here are some of the top moments from Booker's speech
Booker took the floor Monday night with an urgent appeal.
- "I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis," he 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."
- "These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such."
Booker addressed the floundering of the Democratic Party in the new Trump era. Knowing the party's base has grown impatient with leaders who haven't countered Trump more aggressively, Booker said:
- "I confess that I have been imperfect. I confess that I've been inadequate to the moment. I confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that gave lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say 'we will do better.'"
"This Constitution has saved my life," the senator said. "People bled to make real on this democracy."
- "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."
- "They were Americans that said, like Langston Hughes, 'America never was America to me, but I swear this oath America will be.' They love this country so much, even when it didn't love them back. I am here because of that. I'm the fourth Black person popularly elected to this body because of generations that believed so much in this document that they were going to make it real."
Railing against Trump, Booker said about 12 hours in while clutching a copy of the Constitution:
- "Twelve hours now I'm standing, and I'm still going strong, because this president is wrong, and he's violating principles that we hold dear and principles in this document that are so clear and plain."
As Booker neared beating Thurmond's record, he said: "To hate him is wrong, and maybe my ego got too caught up that if I stood here, maybe, maybe, just maybe, I could break this record of the man who tried to stop the rights upon which I stand."
- He continued, "I'm not here, though, because of his speech. I'm here despite his speech. I'm here because as powerful as he was, the people were more powerful."
Go deeper: Cory Booker's epic Senate speech puts Democrats back in the spotlight
