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Democratic Senator Cory Booker broke the record for the longest floor speech as he protested against the policies and actions of the Trump administration.
Booker began his anti-Trump marathon speech on the Senate Floor on Monday (March 31) at 7 p.m. ET and went on to speak for 25 hours and 5 minutes, only pausing to take questions from his Democratic allies.
The New Jersey Democrat's speech surpassed that of late Sen. Strom Thurmond, who spoke on the floor for 24 hours and 18 minutes in 1957. Booker said he was speaking "in spite" of Thurmond's previous remarks against the 1957 Civil Rights Act.
“Since I’ve gotten to the Senate, I always felt it was a strange shadow hanging over this institution — that the longest speech, all the issues that have come up, all the noble causes that people have done, or the things that typically try to stop – I just found it strange that he had the record,” Booker told CNN. “And as a guy who grew up with the legends of the Civil Rights Movement, myself, my parents and their friends, it just would seem wrong to me. It always seemed wrong.”
During his historic protest on the Senate floor, Booker warned Americans that the "country is in crisis," highlighting a range of hot button issues, including Elon Musk's efforts to overhaul the federal government and funding cuts to key health care programs.
“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. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.”
Booker, speaking with nothing but a Bible verse in his pocket, also emphasized the harm Americans are facing under the Trump administration.
“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,” he said. “These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”
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