Who is Cory Booker? The Democrat who broke record for longest Senate speech (and why it’s not a filibuster)
A Democratic senator has delivered the longest ever speech in the US Senate in protest against Donald Trump.
Cory Booker, 55, took to the floor at 7pm local time on Monday – midnight in the UK – saying he would remain there as long as he was “physically able”.
He finally concluded at 8.04pm local time (1.04am in the UK) the following day, clocking in with 25 hours and four minutes – surpassing the previous record of 24 hours and 18 minutes.
The senator for New Jersey said his goal was to “uplift the stories of Americans who are being harmed by the Trump administration’s reckless actions, attempts to undermine our institutions, and disregard for the rule of law”.
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During his speech, Mr Booker only took brief breaks from speaking, when he gave the floor instead to questions from his Democratic colleagues, according to Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News.
The rules of the Senate dictate a speaker holds the floor as long as they stay at the podium – meaning he could not leave at any point, even to go to the toilet or to eat.
So who exactly is the Democratic senator, what was his multi-hour speech all about – and how did he do it?
Mr Booker has criticised the Trump administration during his speech. Pic: Senate Television via AP
Rising star of Democratic Party
Mr Booker was born in Washington DC and moved to northern New Jersey when he was a boy.
He is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law and started his career as a lawyer for charities.
Entering politics, he was considered a rising star in the Democratic Party. He was elected to serve on the city council of New Jersey’s biggest state, Newark, and then as mayor, a position he held until 2013.
He was first elected to the US Senate in 2013 during a special election held after the death of politician and businessman Frank Lautenberg.
He went on to win his first full term in 2014 and was re-elected in 2020.
2020 presidential bid
In February 2019 Mr Booker launched his bid for the US presidency from the steps of his home in Newark.
At the time, he played on his personal ties to the “low-income, inner city community” and urged for the US to return to a “common sense of purpose”.
He later dropped out of the race after struggling to raise the money required to make a bid for the White House.
Senator Cory Booker. Pic: AP
Why did he speak in the Senate – and what did he say?
By holding the floor in the Senate, Mr Booker protested against the Trump administration.
Before he began, the senator said he had the intention of “getting in some good trouble”, NBC News reported.
He started by saying he intended to disrupt “the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able”.
“I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis,” he said.
In the hours that followed, he gave a warning about the “grave and urgent” threat Americans faced from the Trump administration, arguing that “bedrock commitments” to the country “are being broken.”
He read letters from constituents about how Mr Trump’s cuts were already taking a toll on their lives.
He claimed the US was giving up being a global leader, citing Mr Trump’s proposals to take over Greenland and Canada while feuding with longtime allies.
He also occasionally took aim at Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, who is advising Mr Trump and leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the core foundations of our democracy,” Mr Booker said on the floor.
“These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”
“Twelve hours now I’m standing, and I’m still going strong, because this president is wrong, and he’s violating principles that we hold dear and principles in this document that are so clear and plain,” Mr Booker said at around 7am on Tuesday, holding up a copy of the Constitution.
Appearing to waver slightly at times, Mr Booker was accompanied by Senator Chris Murphy. In 2016, Mr Booker joined the Connecticut Democrat when he held the floor for almost 15 hours to argue for gun control legislation.
Pic: Senate TV / Reuters
22 hours in, Mr Booker acknowledged he was struggling.
“I don’t have much gas left in the tank,” he said at around 5pm, before continuing.
“More Americans need to stand up and say enough is enough,” he said.
While the main motivation for the speech was to stand up to the Trump administration, Mr Booker later said he wanted to break the record previously set by Senator Strom Thurmond in 1957, who was protesting the Civil Rights Act.
During an MSNBC interview Tuesday night, Mr Booker said Mr Thurmond’s record “always kind of just really irked me”.
“The longest speech on our great Senate floor was someone who was trying to stop people like me from being in the Senate. So to surpass that was something I didn’t know if we could do, but it was something that was really – once we got closer, became more and more important,” he said.
A standing ovation and millions of TikTok likes
At 7.45pm, having already broken the record, Mr Booker said he would “stop soon”.
Minutes after he broke the record, he said: “I want to go a little bit past this, and then I’m gonna, I’m gonna deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling.”
Then finally, at 8.04pm, he ended his speech to a standing ovation from Senate colleagues.
“This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right; it’s right or wrong. Let’s get in good trouble. I yield the floor,” Mr Booker concluded.
A live feed of the speech on the senator’s TikTok account had more than 350 million likes, according to Mr Booker’s office, which said that it had also received more than 28,000 voicemails of encouragement.
After the speech, he wrote on X: “I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.
“I believe that history will show we rose to meet this moment.
“It will show we did not let the chaos and division go unanswered. It will show that when our president chose to spread lies and sow fear, we chose to come together, to work together, and to rise together.”
How did he prepare for it?
Mr Booker’s speech wasn’t an impromptu one; his office said it stemmed from 1,164 pages of prepared material.
But it wasn’t just the speech itself that the senator had to prepare for – it was the physical demands of the display.
Mr Booker later told reporters that in preparation for the speech, he had stopped eating days in advance.
“My strategy was to stop eating – I think I stopped eating on Friday – and then to stop drinking the night before I started,” he said, adding that those decisions had left him dehydrated and with cramped muscles.
Senator Chris Murphy, who was with Mr Booker overnight during his speech, spoke admiringly of his performance – and endurance – as it headed into hour 23.
“It’s really hard to get your body past hour 22 and 23,” Mr Murphy said, “I just don’t think he’s going to stop until he has to stop.”
Asked whether Mr Booker wore a nappy or a catheter, Mr Murphy laughed and said he wasn’t the person to ask. A spokesperson for Mr Booker said he hadn’t worn either.
He noted that Mr Booker had pain medicine in his desk drawer in case he needed it.
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Why it was not a filibuster
Some reports have referred to Mr Booker’s speech as a filibuster, but technically it was not.
A filibuster is a speech meant to halt the advance of a specific piece of legislation.
Mr Booker’s performance was instead a broader critique of Mr Trump’s agenda, meant to hold up any business scheduled to take place in the Senate and draw attention to what Democrats are doing to contest the president.
Democrats have been forced to use these types of opposition methods as they do not hold a majority in either congressional chamber.
Mr Booker has been involved in a filibuster, joining fellow senator Chris Murphy for his nearly 15-hour speech to advocate for gun control in 2016.
US
Trump ‘very disappointed’ in Russian strikes on Ukraine and calls for Putin to ‘sit down and sign a deal’
Donald Trump has said he’s “very disappointed” with Russia as he continues to push for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
On Saturday, the US president met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Vatican for their first face-to-face meeting since their explosive White House summit.
The Ukrainian president said the meeting ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral could end up being “historic.” Hours later, Mr Trump questioned Vladimir Putin’s appetite for peace in a Truth Social post.
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From Saturday: Trump meets Zelenskyy at funeral
Speaking before boarding Air Force One on Sunday, Mr Trump again said the meeting went well, and that the Ukrainian leader was “calmer”.
“I think he understands the picture, I think he wants to make a deal,” he said, before turning to Mr Putin and Russia.
“I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” the US president said, adding he was “very disappointed that they did the bombing of those places (including Kyiv, where nine people were killed in a Russian airstrike on Friday) after discussions”.
However, Mr Trump said he thinks Mr Zelenskyy is ready to give up Crimea, which the Ukrainian leader has repeatedly said he would refuse to do.
He added that “we’ll see what happens in the next few days” and said “don’t talk to me about Crimea, talk to Obama and Biden about Crimea”.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, while Barack Obama was president.
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Sky’s US partner network NBC News that a peace deal to end the war was “closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years, but it’s still not there”.
“If this was an easy war to end, it would have been ended by someone else a long time ago,” he added on the Meet the Press show.
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It comes after North Korea confirmed it had deployed troops to fight for Russia, months after Ukraine and Western officials said its forces were in Europe.
State media outlet KCNA reported North Korean soldiers made an “important contribution” to expelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory, likely to be the Kursk region.
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KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un made the decision to deploy troops to Russia and notified Moscow, and quoted him as saying: “They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland.”
It also quoted the country’s ruling Workers’ Party as saying the end of the battle to liberate Kursk showed the “highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between North Korea and Russia.
Last June, Mr Kim and Mr Putin signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty after a state visit – his first to the country in 24 years.
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From June 2024: Putin drives Kim around in luxury limo during state visit
The North Korean leader promised at the time “full support and solidarity to the Russian government, army and people in carrying out the special military operation in Ukraine”.
Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died aged 41.
In a statement to Sky’s US partner network NBC News on Friday, her family said she took her own life in the Perth suburb of Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years.
“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said.
“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.
“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”
Pic: AP
Police said emergency services received reports of an unresponsive woman at a property in Neergabby on Friday night.
“Police and St John Western Australia attended and provided emergency first aid. Sadly, the 41-year-old woman was declared deceased at the scene,” a police spokeswoman said.
“The death is being investigated by Major Crime detectives; early indication is the death is not suspicious.”
Sexual assault claims
Prince Andrew has denied all claims of wrongdoing. File pic: Reuters
Ms Giuffre sued the Duke of York for sexual abuse in August 2021, saying Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by his friend, the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The duke has repeatedly denied the claims, and he has not been charged with any criminal offences.
In March 2022, it was announced Ms Giuffre and Andrew had reached an out-of-court settlement – believed to include a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”.
‘An incredible champion’
Sigrid McCawley, Ms Giuffre’s attorney, said in a statement that she “was much more than a client to me; she was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims”.
“Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring,” she said. “The world has lost an amazing human being today.”
“Rest in peace, my sweet angel,” she added.
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Dini von Mueffling, Ms Giuffre’s representative, also said that “Virginia was one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know”.
“Deeply loving, wise, and funny, she was a beacon to other survivors and victims,” she added. “She adored her children and many animals.
“She was always more concerned with me than with herself. I will miss her beyond words.
“It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”
Ms Giuffre said at the end of March she had four days to live after a car accident, posting on social media that “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure”. She was discharged from hospital eight days later.
Raised mainly in Florida, she said she was abused by a family friend early in life, which led to her living on the streets at times as a teenager.
She said that in 2000, she met Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Pic: US Department of Justice
Ms Giuffre said Maxwell then introduced her to Epstein and hired her as his masseuse, and said she was sex trafficked and sexually abused by him and associates around the world.
‘A survivor’
After meeting her husband in 2002, while taking massage training in Thailand at what she said was Epstein’s behest, she moved to Australia and had a family.
She founded the sex trafficking victims’ advocacy charity SOAR in 2015, and is quoted on its website as saying: “I do this for victims everywhere.
“I am no longer the young and vulnerable girl who could be bullied. I am now a survivor, and nobody can ever take that away from me.”
:: Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
Donald Trump has met Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of the Pope’s funeral, Vatican sources have told Sky News.
The US and Ukrainian presidents had a “very productive discussion”, according to a White House Official, and have also agreed to hold further talks after the service.
They are among world leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, who are attending the funeral of Pope Francis.
Follow live updates: Zelenskyy among world leaders joining thousands of mourners
There was applause from some of those gathered in St Peter’s Square when the Ukrainian leader walked out.
The former British ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy.
Trump and Zelenskyy meet for first time since Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine, and is their first face-to-face meeting after a very public row between the presidents at the White House in February.
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish Armed Forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening, in a post on X.
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