New York: Railing against President Donald Trump continuously for more than 25 hours in the Senate, a Democrat senator has set the record for the longest speech in Congress.
Senator Corey Booker started his speech Monday evening and ended it Tuesday evening, standing nonstop at a lectern, without even bathroom breaks in a display of extraordinary stamina.
He took advantage of the Senate rule that allows senators to speak without a time limit in order to campaign against Trump’s policies and build his image.
He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2020 and ultimately endorsed former President Joe Biden.
Fellow Democrats pitched in, asking him questions as permitted under the rules so that he could catch his breath.
He broke the record set in 1957 by a racist, Senator Strom Thurmond, who held up the Senate proceedings for 24 hours and 18 minutes to prevent the passage of the Civil Rights Act, which guaranteed voting rights for Americans.
The Senate passed the historic civil rights law a couple of hours after Thurmond ended his speech, and President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law.
When he gave his marathon speech, Thurmond was a Democrat, a party that at that time supported racist policies like segregation of African Americans in the South, before turning progressive.
Thurmond switched to the Republican Party in 1964, by which time the two parties had switched policies.
Booker said of Thurmond, “To hate him is wrong”, and added, “I’m not here though because of his speech. I’m here despite his speech. I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people were more powerful”.
Invoking civil rights leader John Lewis at several points in his speech, he repeated towards the end his words, “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America”.
Unlike Thurmond, Booker was not trying to delay legislation but only making a show of opposition to Trump.
An athletic 55-year-old, Booker was an American football champion while at Standford University where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
He earned a Rhodes Scholarship, studied at Oxford University, and obtained a law degree from Yale.
The senator who represents New Jersey criticised Trump, asking if Americans were better off now than 72 days ago before Trump took office.
Now the prices were higher, the stock market, where many Americans have their retirement funds, was down, and consumer confidence was lower, he said.
He said that instead of keeping his election pledge to lower prices, Trump was following policies like raising tariffs that would only send prices higher, while attacking Canada and talking of taking over Greenland.
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