With a sensational speech, the democratic Senator Cory Booker in the US Parliament protested against the Trump government-and set a record. He used a trick.
At 7:19 p.m. (local time), the democratic minority leader in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, turns to his party colleague Cory Booker: “Do you know that you have just broken a record?” Applause gives up on the spectator stands, which are unusually well filled for an ordinary Tuesday evening. Booker had just written history.
Previously, the Senator from the state of New Jersey had repeatedly referred to one of the most famous civil rights activists in American history. “It was John Lewis who inspired me,” said the 55-year-old. “John Lewis has changed my life, his courage ensured that I can stand here today and talk in front of them.” And Booker did that in an incredible way.
At 7 p.m. on Monday evening (local time) he started talking, 25 hours later he was still behind the lectern in the congress. Not tired and exhausted, but full of enthusiasm, entertaining, jokes tearing. What he spoke about was not funny at all. Because the democratic senator used his marathon speech to protest against the government of Donald Trump to shake up the senators present and send a signal to the people in the country: Look, we do not simply allow Democrats to do what is happening in Washington, DC. We get up and defend ourselves, was his credo.
Booker repeatedly came to the black civil rights activist Lewis, whom he described as a shining model of peaceful political resistance and as a true American hero. He stands here and protest in the spirit of Martin Luther King and John Lewis, says Booker. “John Lewis, I will make you proud,” he said in one of his last conversations with the civil rights activist who died in 2020, as he told before the plenum.
In the congress, Booker used an instrument that is a special feature of the American parliamentary system: the filibuster. In principle, it allows the democratically elected MPs of unlimited speaking time. The filibuster is usually used to delay votes on controversial legislative proposals. But on this day there was no such coordination in the Senate, also because Donald Trump has almost only ruled with presidential letting, the so -called Executive Order. These do not require the approval of the parliament.
Technically speaking, Booker’s current speech was not a filibuster – but he used the unlimited speaking time to protest against Trump’s “unconstitutional” approach, as he said. “In just 71 days, the President of the United States has caused so much damage to the security of the Americans, financial stability, the basics of our democracy”.
Booker also dealt with the fatal developments in the United States, which in his opinion, who had taken place under Trump at a frenzied pace – and the worries that trigger this with many citizens. He had received many letters from voters and concerned citizens who asked why politicians like him would no longer do against the autocratic tendencies that emerged in the White House every day. That shaked him up that he “recognized the urgency, the crisis of the moment”. So he wants to fight, the senator said.
