Democrat Cory Booker broke the record for the longest speech in the U.S. Senate last night, speaking for more than 25 hours straight against Donald Trump's policies, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
„I stand up with the intent to disrupt the normal process of the U.S. Senate while I am physically able. I stand up tonight because I sincerely believe that our country is in crisis“, he said Monday, at the start of his marathon speech.
The New Jersey senator's speech erased the 1957 record set by Strom Thurmond – a South Carolina senator, a supporter of racial segregation, who opposed a historic civil rights law and had spoken in the plenary chamber for 24 hours and 18 minutes, notes Agence France-Presse.
Symbolically, shortly before breaking this record, Cory Booker recalled in an emotional and tired voice the words of one of his mentors - John Lewis, an emblematic figure of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
The senator used the slogan of the former Democrat in Congress, who died in 2020, to call on Americans to cause “riots, good riots“ in society in response to Donald Trump's policies.
“This is not about left or right. This is about good and evil. America, this is a moral question: does the Constitution live in your heart?“, the senator said shortly after setting the new record.
He finally gave way at 8:05 p.m. local time, after speaking for 25 hours without interruption.
Corry Booker had been on the Senate floor since 7 p.m. the previous night to protest what he called President Trump's “unconstitutional” policies.
The upper house of Congress's internal rules allow any senator to take the floor as long as he remains standing and speaks without interruption. This tactic is known as a “filibuster“ - a word derived from the French “flibustier“ (a pirate active off the American coast from the 16th to the 18th centuries - ed.), as the senator practically hijacks the podium and thus prevents the closing of the debates, AFP points out.
The rules are strict: no sitting or resting is allowed, even for physiological needs. The only permissible pause is that for the voice - when another senator can take the floor to ask the speaker a question, and sometimes the question itself is lengthy.