Sen. Cory Booker, his voice still booming after more than a day spent on the Senate floor railing against the Trump administration, surpassed Strom Thurmond for the longest Senate speech on record Tuesday night, in an act of astonishing stamina that he framed as a call to action.
Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey and a one-time presidential candidate, began his speech at 7 p.m. Monday, vowing to speak as long as he was “physically able.” In a show of physical and oratorical endurance, he lasted past sunset Tuesday, assailing President Donald Trump’s cuts to government agencies and crackdown on immigration.
He ended his speech at 8:05 p.m., 46 minutes after eclipsing Thurmond’s 24-hour, 18-minute filibuster of a civil rights bill in 1957. He finished by quoting former Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights hero. Booker said of Lewis: “He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation. I want you to redeem the dream. Let’s be bold in America.”
