POLITICS NEWS – Senator Cory Booker breaks Strom Thurmond record for longest Senate speech

Laila Kirkpatrick, Staff Writer

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker began a “filibuster” on the floor of the Senate at 7:00 PM on Monday and continued speaking until the following day on Tuesday night. His speech, though technically not a filibuster, with no vote tied to his remarks, set a new record for the longest speech in the Senate at 25 hours and 5 minutes. As Booker began his speech, he vowed to speak for as long as he was “physically able.” Booker’s speech was a new show of Democrat’s resistance to President Trump’s actions and the issues many have raised with his second administration’s policies.

Booker’s record-breaking stint was assisted by other Democrats in the Senate, who gave him verbal breaks from speaking to answer questions. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black party leader in Congress, was able to watch some of Booker’s speech and called it “an incredibly powerful moment.”  Booker said he was “fighting to preserve the American way of our life and our democracy.”  He broke the record of segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond, who filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights bill.