Cory Booker about his record-breaking, 25-hour senate atmosphere Speech: NPR

On Monday evening, Senator Cory Booker was on the Senate floor and started a speech that the Trump government criticized.

The 55-year-old Democrat from New Jersey kept Talk and talk – by the night and in the next – for 25 hours and 5 minutes.

He wasn’t. He didn’t ate. He did not use the toilet.

“The body is tired in many places, from my back to my feet and to my legs, I just feel it,” said Booker All together taken Host Juana Summers. “But my soul is rising and I feel very blessed by the whole experience.”

His efforts, in which dozens of colleagues Senate Democrats asked those questions to alleviate his talk tax, set a record for the longest speech in the Chamber. It surpassed the previous record in 1957 by segregationist Senator Strom ThurmondThat filibuster was for 24 hours and 18 minutes To resist the Civil Rights Act.

Booker started his speech at 7 p.m. on Monday and promised to use his time to “disrupt the normal things of the Senate of the United States as long as I am physically capable.”

“In just 71 days, the President has damaged after damage to the safety of Americans, financial stability, the basis of our democracy and every feeling of common decency,” he said in his introductory comments. “These are not normal times in our nation. And they cannot be treated as such in the Senate of the United States.”

Booker had said that his passionate anti-Trump speech comes at a time when many voters are questioning the direction of the party.

“I think we couldn’t talk about the party and talk about the people,” he said NPR. “I really think we should get a brutal vision of who we are like a country, not just about who we are against as the other party.”

When asked for comments on Booker’s speech before setting the record, a spokesperson for the White House issued a statement to various news stores:

“Cory Booker is looking for another moment” I am Spartacus’ moment, but that did not work for his failed presidential campaign, and it did not work to block the nominated Supreme Court of President Trump, Brett Kavanaugh. When will he realize that he is not a Spartacus? ” The spokesperson, Harrison Fields, said in a statement.

This interview is slightly processed for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

Juana Summers: Democrats and those who are against President Trump, they have cried for your party to do something real to do something to record the president. And following fiery public rhetoric like yours there in the Senate, how do you use that momentum and for substantive, real action?

Cory Booker: Well, I really wanted as much as possible, and I know it is what it is. But I have tried to frame my comments as much as possible, not about left or right, but right or wrong, that this was a moral moment because much of the policy – and I know that this is agreed by neither of my Republican colleagues. And you know, many things that [Trump is] That’s why he didn’t even walk on. And the challenges for the American people, whose votes I tried to bring in my speech and to read dozens of real Americans from all over the country, especially New Jersey, but on both sides of the political aisle, but really say that this policy is morally wrong and hurt people. And so I hope that this might be one of the many inflammatory points that bring people to galvanize and come together and prevent him from doing a lot of these things, as we did in 2017, when Americans of all backgrounds could stop him, together with three Republican senators to remove health care for millions of people.

Summer: I want to talk about some of the problems you have raised. You emphasized a number of problems, including the protection of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security against possible cuts of the Trump administration. Do Democrats and those who want to protect those programs have a plan to actually do this?

Booker: Well, we know reality now. They will use a budget process that does not require democratic votes. And because they are in the majority, that means that we do not have the voices as Democrats alone to stop them. But you hear Republicans, a man like [Congressman Thomas] Massie In the house, which said very bravely, I will not vote for this because it creates trillions of dollars in new budget obligations, the shortage simply expands. And I find an appeal to the moral and character and, to be honest, principles from the other side they use. And they say and that is why I brought in so many Republican think tanks, Republican voices, Republican Governors during the speech. And this cannot be democratic, only victory we are looking for. The only way to win now is to wake up and dealing with people on both sides of the political aisle. And the real reasons to stop this because it is not a tax useful to create trillions of dollars in more obligations for our grandchildren. It makes no sense to remove money from programs such as Medicaid, all to give tax cuts that go disproportionately to the richest among us. That is, I think, the kind of principles of most people who violates.

Summer: You said Democrats cannot do it alone. I don’t have to tell you that Republicans have the majority control over the house and the Senate. What have you heard of your Republican colleagues in the aftermath of the speech?

Booker: I have many hugs from my Republican colleagues. I think people find that surprising, but many people just appreciated, I think it was the record of Strom Thurmond, my Republican colleagues and democratic colleagues were bothered. And they were happy that I had beaten that record, even if they did not agree with all the points I made during my comments. Others have said to me, you know, there are many things I said they can agree, even though there are things they disagree with. So I had an experience in the Senate who has made a number of large accounts by finding a common basis. I think this is a time when the party knows how about the top Donald Trump is. The party knows how humiliating and humiliating it can be for people in and out of the party. The party knows that there are problematic things, but now we have to wake them up to really do something about it. I quoted [Martin Luther King Jr.] Last night what he said, what we should repent for, are not the vitriolic words and violent actions of the bad people, but the horrible silence and inactivity of the good people. “