The Rachel Maddow Show
Exclusive: Exclusive: Senator Cory Booker reflects on his historic, record-setting speech
Wed, 2 Apr 2025
Senator Cory Booker talks with Rachel Maddow about holding the Senate floor for a record-breaking 25 hours and 4 minutes to raise attention to the perils of Donald Trump's agenda and inspire American activism against that agenda as many of his constituents have taken to regular public protests on their own.
Chapter 1: What are the key issues discussed in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election?
Polls have just closed just now in Wisconsin, where a high-stakes Supreme Court election will decide the ideological split of that court that has implications for everything from abortion rights to voting rights to gerrymandering to potentially control of the United States House in Washington, potentially to the ultimate dispensation and integrity of the next presidential election.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race has implications far beyond Wisconsin. It's also the first statewide race since the November election, and it happens to be happening in the state that was the most closely decided among all the states that Trump won. Again, in Wisconsin, polls have just now closed.
We will bring you results in that very important Supreme Court race as we get them in over the course of this hour. We're also watching the results from two special elections for Congress in Florida. Deep, deep, deep red districts where Florida Republicans had taken those seats by well over 30 points in both cases.
We're watching to see how far Democrats have been able to chase Republicans toward that finish line tonight as the polling numbers, excuse me, as the voting numbers, the voting totals in Florida continue to come in. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, as I mentioned, will be joining us live in just a few moments, which itself is a miraculous thing.
He'll be joining us for his first interview after his historic all day and then some speech on the Senate floor in Washington. Tonight at 7.19 p.m. Eastern, Senator Booker broke the record for the longest speech ever given by a United States senator. The previous record was set by arch segregationist Strom Thurmond. who tried to filibuster the Civil Rights Act in 1957.
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Chapter 2: How did Senator Cory Booker break the Senate floor speech record?
That speech lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes, but it included things like him reading from the encyclopedia and him taking a bathroom break. Senator Cory Booker did nothing like either of those things. Tonight, Senator Booker blew past Thurman's record. He spoke until 8.04 p.m. for a total of 25 hours and four minutes.
Would the senator yield for a question?
Chuck Schumer is the only time in my life I can tell you no.
I just want to tell you a question. Do you know you have just broken the record? Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you know how proud America is of you?
That was the moment when he broke the record, but that was not the end. He then kept going. The whole time, Senator Booker was not allowed to sit down or use the bathroom. He did get help from his Democratic colleagues who took turns overnight and all through the day today asking Senator Booker questions.
That still did not mean Senator Booker could sit down, but it did mean that for the time they were asking their questions, he could stop talking. For the length of time it took them to pose a question to him, whereupon it was time for him to start talking again. At the start of his speech at 7 p.m.
last night, Senator Booker referenced the late Congressman John Lewis, civil rights icon, a mentor to many Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Booker. Congressman John Lewis famously advised getting into what he called good trouble. Senator Booker began his stand by saying that's what he intended to do.
He began by saying he would disrupt the normal business of the Senate for as long as he was physically able because he sincerely believed the country was in crisis. Senator Booker started last night. He talked all night. He was still at it when we woke up today, delivering on his promise to disrupt the status quo any way he could.
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Chapter 3: What motivated Senator Booker to speak for 25 hours?
It's enough for me. 12 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. The powers of the Article I branch are spelled out and he is violating them.
The Congress that is being too complicit to an executive that is overstepping his authority and violating the Constitution and hurting people. who rely on healthcare and social security. When is it going to be enough? My voice is inadequate. My efforts today are inadequate. to stop what they're trying to do. But we, the people, are powerful. We are strong. God bless America. We need you now.
God bless America. If you love her, if you love your neighbor, if you love this country, show your love. Stop them from doing what they're trying to doing for almost 20 hours. We have laid out what they're trying to do 20 hours. I want to stand more, and I will, but I'm begging people, don't let this be another normal day in America.
Please, God, please, God, don't let them take Medicaid away from 10, 20, 30, or 40 million Americans who desperately need it. Don't let them do it. This is our moral moment. This is when the most precious ideas of our country are being tested, where the Constitution and the question is being called, where does the Constitution live? On paper or in our hearts?
It is time to heed the words of the man. I began this whole thing with John Lewis. I beg folks to take his example of his early days where he made himself determined to show his love for his country at a time the country didn't love him. to love this country so much, to be such a patriot that he endured beatings savagely on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, at lunch counters, on freedom rides.
He said he had to do something. We need that now from all Americans. This is a moral moment. It's not left or right. It's right or wrong. It's getting good trouble. My friend, Madam President, I yield the floor.
Joining us now for his first TV interview since his record-breaking speech in the Senate, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, the new record holder for the Senate's longest ever speech. Senator, how are you?
I'm... Definitely hurting a little bit, but I'm feeling strong in spirit and grateful to so many people who allowed me to tell their stories on the Senate floor and who were there for me from the parliamentary staff to my colleagues. It was a long 25 hours, but I'm feeling a lot of gratitude.
Staying up 25 hours for any reason is a trying thing physically. What was different about the experience of it than what you anticipated? I mean, you stood by your fellow Senator Chris Murphy nine years ago when he did 15 hours. He described that today as a solidarity or a sympathy filibuster in that you stood with him during that time. So you've experienced some of the pain of this before.
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Chapter 4: What was the significance of Senator Booker's speech against Trump's agenda?
But A, you're nine years older than you were then. And B, this was a lot. How was it different, and how much were you prepared for?
You know, I was grateful to Chris. You know, I talked about it before, and at the end tonight, I said, our balance sheet's not equal. I now owe you 10 more hours. I stood with him and I really wanted to see if I could stand for as long as he and I were going to go. And he was successful that day in getting concessions from Mitch McConnell to have votes on the Senate floor around gun safety.
Unfortunately, even common sense gun safety then failed. But for me, it was an experience that stuck in my mind. I could do 15 hours without going to the bathroom, even though my legs really hurt over those 15 hours. Both of us talked about how our feet hurt. And so when my team and I decided to do this, we just said, let's take some risks. Let's go out there and see how long we could last.
And to be candid, Strom Thurmond's record always kind of just just really irked me that he would be the longest speech, that 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
As we got closer, it became more and more important to me.
You used that phrase, take risks. You said repeatedly over the course of this filibuster, this speech, that you're motivated to do this by your constituents essentially challenging you to come up with something, to do something, to do something more than you thought you comfortably could do.
Can you tell us a little bit about the decision-making process that you went through about deciding to do this? Obviously, you kind of kept it under wraps. You prepared with your staff, but nobody publicly knew you were going to do this until you started it.
No, I do really credit constituents who were impatient, who were demanding, who were scared, who were angry, and very understandably taking that anger out on Democrats who have to take some responsibility for being where we are in American history right now.
And so the more I thought about it with my team, especially after the decisions we made revolving around the continuing resolution, I've been working so hard with my colleagues trying to get them to engage in social media, put more of their heart and spirit out there. They're doing an amazing job. They've almost quadrupled their numbers of engagement online.
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Chapter 5: How did the public respond to the mass firings at health agencies?
Thank you so much, my friend. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Wow. Just after he hit the record tonight in the United States Senate, after he crossed that 24-hour, 19-minute threshold, you saw the applause there from the chamber. He set the all-time record for the longest anyone has ever held the floor in the United States Senate. In that moment, it was a surprise, at least to me, watching it live when Senator Booker announced that he would keep going.
But the very next thing he did after he broke the record is he said that he would take a question from his friend, the senator from Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto. And in her question, she told him... You know, listen, Senator Booker, while you have been here holding the floor, there is a lot of news that has broken in the world.
And I don't know if you have heard about it because you have been holding the floor here for now 24 hours and 19 minutes. But she then told him some of the details about the absolute bloodbath of cuts. that Trump forced through today at the FDA and the CDC and the NIH and the other parts of Health and Human Services.
Senator Cortez Masto told Senator Booker on the floor tonight about Trump, for example, cutting funding for something called the Healthy Aging Program at the CDC. And that, you know, sounds woo-woo, right? Sounds something light, something that the Trump administration would certainly think expendable. You want to know what the Healthy Aging Program is at the CDC? No.
It's all the government's Alzheimer's programs. Trump just cut them today. Trump today fired 10,000 people who work at the FDA and the CDC and the NIH, including all the people working on Alzheimer's. They cut people working on bird flu and on measles. They cut hundreds of people from the Center for Drug Evaluation. And I'm sure the Trump administration thinks, well, what's the heck's that?
Why do we care about that drug evaluation? We don't need that. We've got A.I., When they cut those hundreds of people from the Center for Drug Evaluation, that's the people who are responsible for the approval of new drugs and also the monitoring of side effects.
They also appear to have completely emptied out the part of the government that regulates tobacco because, yeah, there was nothing successful about that. We're going to have more on all of that ahead, but.
You should also know, to Senator Booker's point that he just made here live, you should also know that when the news of these mass firings of the nation's health experts started getting out this morning, when the word started getting out, within hours, people were lining the streets outside the CDC in Atlanta to protest.
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