Sen. Cory Booker says he did not eat for days and purposely dehydrated himself in preparation for his record-breaking marathon speech that ended Tuesday night on the Senate floor.
The senior Democrat from New Jersey mounted a lengthy protest against the policies of the Trump administration, speaking for 25 hours and 5 minutes, according to his office, and effectively delaying any legislative business Tuesday in the Senate. He broke a record for the longest speech in the chamber’s history, surpassing by nearly an hour the 24 hours and 18 minutes South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond spoke in 1957 to filibuster the Civil Rights Act.
“I was very aware of Strom Thurmond’s record,” Booker told reporters after the speech. “I’ve always felt it was a strange shadow to hang over this institution … It always seemed wrong.”
Booker largely used his time to rail against President Donald Trump and the harms he said the president’s administration is inflicting on Americans.
Booker, who took the floor Monday night at 7 p.m., said in a video posted on X that he planned to disrupt “the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able.”
How did Cory Booker prepare for marathon speech?
After his speech came to an end, Booker told reporters that he hadn’t eaten since Friday and stopped drinking fluids Sunday night so he wouldn’t have to go to the bathroom.
Since he started speaking and until he yielded the floor, Booker did not eat and only periodically sipped from two glasses of water on his desk. He did not sit down, did not leave the chamber to go to the bathroom and did not even wander from from his desk on the Senate floor.
“I definitely started cramping up from lack of water,” Booker said.
A few hours in, Booker even had a Senate page remove his chair so he wasn’t tempted to sit.
Why? Because as long as he didn’t leave the chamber, no other senator could force him to stop speaking.
By Tuesday afternoon, he was rocking back and forth in his black tennis shoes and leaning lightly on his desk in between monologues. Booker, however, did allow other Democratic senators to give short speeches and ask questions to give him a rest from speaking.
Cory Booker ends record-breaking speech
The speech, while not technically a filibuster since he wasn’t delaying any specific legislation, came as the Democratic base rages at their representatives in Congress for not doing enough to push back against Trump and his slew of executive orders.
Without a majority in the House or Senate, Democrats have struggled to resist Trump’s agenda.
From Monday night into Tuesday, Booker lambasted Trump and his adviser, tech billionaire Elon Musk, who together have dramatically culled the federal workforce and redefined the relationship between the three branches of government.
Throughout his speech, Booker read letters he received from constituents and spoke about health care, housing, Social Security and other benefit programs. He also touched on free speech, the public education system, the cost of living, and the United States’ role on the world stage.
Booker ended his marathon speech by invoking late Civil Rights icon John Lewis, who served in the House of Representatives.
“He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble to redeem the soul of our nation,” Booker said. “Let’s be bold in American for a vision that inspires with hope. It starts with the people of the United States of America.”
