Booker says he hoped floor speech would be something that 'would unify our caucus'
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said on Wednesday he hoped to unify the Democratic party with his marathon floor speech this week after the caucus grew bitterly divided in debates over the continuing resolution last month.
In an interview on MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber,” Booker described those tense moments behind closed doors last month, when asked why he picked this week to set a new record for the longest floor speech in Senate history.
“You know, we had a terrible fight in the Senate. And I love my 46 Democratic colleagues. But… if you were in those caucus meetings when we were debating over what to do with the continuing resolution, everybody who stood up actually had principled, strong feelings,” Booker said in the interview.
“But we were divided against each other on what to do,” he continued. “And I think I felt so — I won't use the word demoralized — but pretty down after that.”
Booker said he also started hearing from people in his state around that time and that was when “it really came together for me, that I, enough is enough.”
Booker, the No. 4 ranking Democrat in the Senate, said he has been working with his fellow Democrats to drive online engagement, “where more and more of our voters are,” adding, “And I've been proud of them.”
"But I said, I need to step out and do something. And so I was hoping I could do something that would unify our caucus and unify people who believe that the country is facing really disastrous waters right now. And so I figured this was it," he said.
Booker began speaking on the Senate floor at 7 p.m. on Monday and spoke for 25 hours and 5 minutes, eventually yielding the floor at 8:05 p.m. on Tuesday. He surpassed the previous record of 24 hours and 18 minutes set by former Sen. Strom Thurmond (S.C.), who tried to block the Civil Rights Act of 1957.