Cory Booker’s Marathon Anti-Trump Senate Floor Speech Passes 15 Hours
Senator Cory Booker is in hour 15 of a Senate floor “filibuster” at the time of this writing. He started the marathon speech in protest of Trump at 7 p.m. on Monday.
While technically not an official filibuster—since no legislation is being blocked—the New Jersey Democrat’s lengthy speech will likely disrupt the Senate’s schedule if it goes past noon.
While he covered everything from 9/11 to the New York Giants, Booker used the majority of his speech to excoriate President Trump and the outsize influence of Elon Musk and DOGE, who he says have displayed a “complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the needs of the American people.”
This speech is one of the more aggressive anti-Trump actions that the Democratic Party has taken, and is certainly a louder, more direct demonstration than the protest signs some Democratic lawmakers held up at the State of the Union. Booker has been helped along at multiple points of his speech by Senators Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy, and others. Booker also read personal accounts from both citizens and noncitizens living in fear of things like Musk and Trump’s cuts to Social Security or ICE detainment.
“Today, 73 million Americans count on Social Security. Millions more than that are planning on those benefits they earn being there for them. You heard from that first letter I read that people are really worried. Forty percent of people who rely on Social Security—40 percent—have no other source of income,” Booker said, around 2 a.m. on Monday night. “You don’t fix America by throwing seniors, or veterans, or Americans with disabilities under the bus. That’s not how we do things.… Social Security is not the government’s money to spend. It’s the hard-earned savings of working Americans, and it belongs to Americans. The president and Elon Musk need to keep their hands off of it. It’s not theirs to take.” Neither Musk nor Trump have commented on Booker’s speech.
The record for longest official filibuster is still held by legendary racist Strom Thurmond, who railed against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes.