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.
It’s 5.30am, but the car park outside a laundrette in south central Los Angeles is already bustling.
A woman is setting up a stand selling tacos on the pavement and the sun is beginning to rise behind the palm trees.
A group of seven women and two men are gathered in a circle, most wearing khaki green t-shirts.
The leader, a man named Francisco “Chavo” Romero, begins by asking how everyone is feeling. “Angry,” a few of them respond. “Proud of the community for pushing back,” says another.
Ron, a high school history teacher, issues a rallying cry. “This is like Vietnam,” he says. “We’re taking losses, but in the end we’re going to win. It’s a war.”
Francisco ‘Chavo’ Romero leads a volunteer group, attempting to warn people ahead of ICE raids
This is what the resistance against Donald Trump’s immigration policy looks like here. In the past month, immigration and customs enforcement agents – known as ICE – have intensified their raids on homes and workplaces across Los Angeles.
Since the beginning of June, nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in the city, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The previous monthly high was just over 850 arrests in May this year.
Police use tear gas against protesters, angry at a recent immigration raid at a farm in Camarillo, California. Pic: AP
Videos have circulated online of people being tackled to the ground in the car park of DIY shops, in car washes and outside homes. The videos have prompted outrage, protests and a fightback.
“Chavo” and Ron belong to a group of organised volunteers called Union del Barrio. Every morning, a group of them meet, mostly in areas which have high immigrant populations.
The day I meet them, they’re in an area of LA which is heavily Latino. Armed with walkie talkies to communicate with each other, megaphones to warn the community and leaflets to raise awareness they set out in cars in different directions.
A volunteer from Union del Barrio shows Sky’s Martha Kelner how they try to stay one step ahead of ICE agents
They’re looking for cars used by ICE agents to monitor “targets”.
“That vehicle looks a little suspicious,” says Ron, pointing out a white SUV with blacked-out windows, “but there’s nobody in it”.
An elderly Latino man is standing on a street corner, cutting fruit to sell at his stall. “He’s the exact target that they’re looking for,” Ron says. “That’s what they’re doing now. The low-hanging fruit, the easy victim. And so that is proving to be more successful for their quotas.”
This man, selling fruit on a street corner in LA, is a potential target of immigration agents
In the end, it turns out to be a quiet morning in this part of LA, no brewing immigration operations. But elsewhere in the city, dawn raids are happening.
ICE agents are under pressure from the White House to boost their deportation numbers in line with Donald Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
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In June, tear gas and rubber bullets were fired at protestors demonstrating against immigration raids
Maria’s husband Javier was one of those arrested in LA. He came to the United States from Mexico when he was 19 and is now 58.
The couple have three grown-up children and two grandchildren. But Javier’s work permit expired two years ago, according to Maria and so he was living here illegally.
Maria’s husband Javier was arrested after his work permit expired
She shows me a video taken last month when Javier was at work at a car wash in Pomona, an area of LA. He is being handcuffed and arrested by armed and masked ICE agents, forced into a car. He is now being held at a detention centre two hours away.
“I know they’re doing their job,” she says, “but it’s like, ‘you don’t have to do it like that.’ Getting them and, you know, forcing people and pushing them down on the ground. They’re not animals.”
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US troops accused of ‘political stunt’ after park raid
Maria wipes away tears as she explains the impact of his absence for the past four weeks. “It’s been so hard without him,” she says. “You feel alone when you get used to somebody and he’s not there any more. We’ve never been apart for as long as this.”
The family have a lawyer and is appealing for him to remain in the US, but Maria fears he will be sent back to Mexico or even a third country.
Maria fears her husband, who has lived in the US for nearly 40 years, will be sent back to Mexico
“I don’t know what to say to my grandkids because the oldest one, who is five was very attached to his papas, as he calls him. And he’s asking me, ‘When is papa coming home?’ and I don’t know what to say. He’s not a criminal.”
The fear in immigrant communities can be measured by the empty restaurant booths and streets that are far quieter than usual.
People in LA are being asked to report sightings of ICE officials so others can be warned
I meet Soledad at the Mexican restaurant she owns in Hollywood. When I arrive, she’s watching the local news on the TV as yet another raid unfolds at a nearby farm.
She’s shaking her head as ICE agents face off with protesters and military helicopters hover overhead. “I am scared. I am very scared,” she says.
All of her eight employees are undocumented, and four of them are too scared to come into work, she says, in case they get arrested. The process to get papers, she says, is too long and too expensive.
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Soledad, who owns a Mexican restaurant, plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive
“They call me and tell me they are too afraid to come in because immigration is around,” she says.
“I have to work double shifts to be able to make up for their hours, and yes, I am very desperate, and sometimes I cry… We have no sales, and no money to pay their wages.”
There is just one woman eating fajitas at a booth, where there would usually be a lunchtime rush. People are chilled by the raids.
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Soledad says she plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive.
“I’ve told them, get inside the fridge, hide behind the stove, climb up where we have a space to store boxes, do not run because they will hunt you down.”
The White House says they’re protecting the country from criminals. ICE agents have been shot at while carrying out operations, their work becoming more dangerous by the day.
The tension here is ratcheting up. Deportation numbers are rising too. But the order from Donald Trump is to arrest even more people living here illegally.
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