US Senator Sets Record by Criticizing Trump for 25 Consecutive Hours
New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker has made headlines for delivering a speech on Capitol Hill that is now the longest in US Senate history, lasting 25 hours and five minutes. This unprecedented address criticized the policies of Republican President...
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New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker has made headlines for delivering a speech on Capitol Hill that is now the longest in US Senate history, lasting 25 hours and five minutes. This unprecedented address criticized the policies of Republican President Donald Trump and began late Monday, concluding late Tuesday night.
Booker expressed his intention “to disrupt the normal business of the US Senate for as long as I am physically able” as a protest against the Trump administration. Throughout his speech, he highlighted the “grave and urgent” circumstances facing America, citing the “threats” posed by the president and his numerous executive orders since taking office in January.
In his critique, Booker condemned several of Trump’s actions, including government spending cuts, a reduction in the federal workforce, trade tariffs, a shifting foreign policy, proposed annexations of Greenland and Canada, criticism of NATO, and a changing approach toward Russia. “The Trump-Vance administration continues to plunge us into chaos,” he stated.
The speech was viewed as a rallying point for Democrats, who currently lack a majority in either chamber of Congress and have faced significant challenges in legislative power. Booker called on both the Senate and everyday Americans to oppose Trump’s policies directly, emphasizing, “These are not normal times in our nation. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”
At 55 years old, Booker is a former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and served as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020. He is now in his second Senate term. Following the conclusion of his speech, he informed reporters that he had fasted for several days and refrained from drinking fluids the night before his lengthy address.
The record for the longest Senate speech was previously held by Strom Thurmond, who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in 1957 in an effort to block an earlier version of the US Civil Rights Act, legislation aimed at ending segregation and racial discrimination.
Booker, one of five Black senators in office, remarked that while he initially was uncertain about breaking the record, “once we got closer, [it] became more and more important to me”—particularly because it was held by “someone who was trying to stop people like me from being in the Senate.”
Rohan Mehta for TROIB News
Booker expressed his intention “to disrupt the normal business of the US Senate for as long as I am physically able” as a protest against the Trump administration. Throughout his speech, he highlighted the “grave and urgent” circumstances facing America, citing the “threats” posed by the president and his numerous executive orders since taking office in January.
In his critique, Booker condemned several of Trump’s actions, including government spending cuts, a reduction in the federal workforce, trade tariffs, a shifting foreign policy, proposed annexations of Greenland and Canada, criticism of NATO, and a changing approach toward Russia. “The Trump-Vance administration continues to plunge us into chaos,” he stated.
The speech was viewed as a rallying point for Democrats, who currently lack a majority in either chamber of Congress and have faced significant challenges in legislative power. Booker called on both the Senate and everyday Americans to oppose Trump’s policies directly, emphasizing, “These are not normal times in our nation. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”
At 55 years old, Booker is a former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and served as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020. He is now in his second Senate term. Following the conclusion of his speech, he informed reporters that he had fasted for several days and refrained from drinking fluids the night before his lengthy address.
The record for the longest Senate speech was previously held by Strom Thurmond, who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in 1957 in an effort to block an earlier version of the US Civil Rights Act, legislation aimed at ending segregation and racial discrimination.
Booker, one of five Black senators in office, remarked that while he initially was uncertain about breaking the record, “once we got closer, [it] became more and more important to me”—particularly because it was held by “someone who was trying to stop people like me from being in the Senate.”
Rohan Mehta for TROIB News
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