Promising a marathon, N.J. Sen. Cory Booker filibusters to protest Trump: ‘Our country is in crisis’

With voters across the country shouting at Democrats and Republicans during town halls to “Do your job!” in opposing Donald Trump's dismantling of the federal government, U.S. Cory Booker of New Jersey took over the Senate floor on Monday night and pledged to hold it “for as long as I’m physically able.”

Before he went to the well of the Senate, Booker posted a warning shot on Twitter/X.

“I’m about to go to the Senate floor, where I intend to be recognized, and when I am, I am not going to stop speaking,” Booker said. “I’m going to go for as long as I’m physically able to go.

“I’ve been hearing from people all over my state and indeed, all over the nation, calling upon folks in Congress to do more, to do things that recognize the urgency, the crisis of the moment. And so we all have a responsibility, I believe, to do something different to cause as (former U.S. Rep.) John Lewis said, ‘Good trouble,’ and that includes me.”

You can watch Booker’s filibuster here.

When Booker began his speech around 8 p.m, he mentioned Lewis again and asked himself: What would the late civil rights leader and Georgia representative — Booker’s idol who died in 2020 and who often got into “good trouble” — do at this moment?

Booker invoked a phrase often used by Lewis: If it is to be, it’s up to me.

While some have insisted Booker’s speech is not a true filibuster in that it isn’t being done to stop a bill, it’s a speaking filibuster designed to clog up senate business.

“I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis,” he said as he began his speech. “And I believe that, not in a partisan sense, because so many of the people that have been reaching out to my office in pain, in fear, having their lives upended. So many of them identify themselves as Republicans.

“Indeed, conversations from in this body to in this building to across my state and recently traveling across the country, Republicans, as well as Democrats, are talking to me about what they feel is a sense of dread, about a growing crisis, or what they point to about what is going wrong — that bedrock commitments in our country, that both sides rely on, that people from all backgrounds rely on, those bedrock commitments are being broken.

“Unnecessary hardships are being borne by Americans of all backgrounds and institutions, which are special in America, which are precious, which are unique in our country, are being recklessly and I would say, even unconstitutionally, affected, attacked, even shattered in just 71 days,” Booker added.

“The President of the United States has inflicted so much harm on American safety financial stability. The core foundations of our democracy. And even our aspirations as a people for from our highest offices, a sense of common.”

“These are not normal times in America.”

Booker’s speech comes two weeks after Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic caucus voted to keep the federal government operating instead of shutting it down to prevent more damage by Trump.

Schumer was heavily criticized by Democrats — in the House and Senate as well as by voters — who demanded more fight. Some Congressional Democrats called for Schumer to step aside and allow younger caucus members to assume leadership.

Booker’s senate takeover also comes on the eve of three elections — for two House seats in Florida and control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court — voters’ first real chance to react to radical actions taken by the administration.

Shortly after he began his speech, Booker started reading letters he said had been written by his constituents, detailing hardships brought on by Trump.

In his first two months, Trump — with the help of billionaire Elon Musk — has fired thousands of federal workers, shut down entire agencies, slashed benefits and safety-net programs, levied tariffs on allies and adversaries, deported immigrants who were in the country legally, attacked judges and law firms, and threatened to take land by force from Canada and Greenland.

While the courts have halted many of these actions, calling some of them “unconstitutional,” Trump nevertheless has continued to sign a flurry of executive orders that have forced opponents to file lawsuits seemingly by the hour.

In recent years, senators have taken control of the chambers for filibusters that have included: Jeff Merkley against Neil Gorsuch in 2017; Chris Murphy on gun control in 2016; Rand Paul over National Security Agency surveillance programs in 2015; and Ted Cruz against the Affordable Care Act 2013.

The late Strom Thurmond holds the record for the longest speech: He held the floor for 24 hours, 18 minutes to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

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