Cory Booker’s speech ignites Democrats ‘desperate’ for a fighter

“Rank-and-file Dems are desperate for leadership and fighters,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of the progressive organization Indivisible, which has accused Democrats of being too passive against Trump.Yet despite the reaction, Booker’s speech won’t end Trump’s attempts to dismantle the federal government or halt his agenda of tax cuts and mass deportations from barreling through the Republican-controlled Congress. The only specific Senate business it disrupted were votes on a resolution involving Trump’s tariffs and his nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to NATO.

After Booker finished, the GOP moved toward a vote on that nominee, Matthew Whitaker, prompting some outside liberals to say Democrats should treat it like an abnormal moment and object.

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis said that Booker’s move recognizes the political currency of the modern era and that Democrats can take a page from his playbook.

“Cynics are going to call Booker’s speech a stunt. Maybe—but stunts aren’t necessarily a bad thing. The name of the game is attention,” he wrote on X. “Trump and Musk are very good at it. Democrats have struggled to take these kinds of risks to our own peril—but Cory is paving the way forward.”

Adam Jentleson, a former senior Senate Democratic aide, said Booker marshaled the chamber’s arcane rules to great effect, posting on X that “in today’s fractured media environment, Booker singlehandedly drove the narrative.”

He added that Democrats have more tools at their disposal to build on that, if they unify: “As a thought experiment, imagine what a coordinated, caucus-wide talking filibuster against, say, a GOP funding bill that cuts popular social safety net programs would look like — as opposed to just voting it down at a 60-vote threshold?”

Booker’s preparation included 1,164 pages of material — and some unusual physical techniques to brace his body, which couldn’t sit or go to the bathroom for the entire session. A spokesperson said Booker didn’t wear a catheter or a diaper.

And Booker managed to remain on message for the duration of his remarks, albeit with help from Democratic colleagues who joined to ask him questions. While senators before him had gone off topic during long floor remarks — like Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who read the book “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss during a 21-hour speech protesting Obamacare in 2013 — Booker stayed focused on highlighting what he perceived to be the negative impacts of the Trump administration’s policies.

“I fasted for days into it. I stopped drinking water a long time ago. I think that had good and bad benefits. I definitely started cramping up from lack of water,” he said. “So there’s just a lot of tactics I was using to try to make sure that I could stand for that long.”

“I really spent time dehydrating myself beforehand so I did not have to go to the bathroom,” he said.