Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) speaks to reporters following his record-breaking Senate floor speech.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm very sore and weary and tired, but I'm enormously grateful for a lot of folks who
00:09sent me their very, very personal stories.
00:11They gave me a chance to speak to the pain, hurt, fear, anger, demands of a lot of Americans.
00:19I'm so grateful to a lot of my colleagues and a lot of the help that people gave me
00:24to do this.
00:25I didn't know how long I could go, but I'm so grateful that I lasted for 25 hours.
00:33Was it your goal coming in to speak longer than Strom Thurmond?
00:37And the question that some people have is, how do you maintain the stamina?
00:41How did you not have to use the restroom for 25 hours?
00:44Did you find a way to use the restroom?
00:46Can you talk to us about that?
00:48A few things.
00:49One is, I was very aware of Strom Thurmond's record since I've gotten to the Senate.
00:55I always felt it was a strange shadow to hang over this institution at the longest speech.
00:59All the issues that have come up, all the noble causes that people have done or the
01:03things that took people to try to stop, I just found it strange that he had the record.
01:07As a guy who grew up with the legends of the civil rights movement, myself, my parents
01:13and other of their friends, it just seemed wrong to me, it always seemed wrong.
01:17I had this hope that Chris Murphy would do it, actually.
01:20So I definitely had it on my mind, but as Chris and I joked, I'm nine years older than
01:24when he and I did it for 15 hours, and my back was sore and my legs were hurting, so
01:28I just didn't know if I could.
01:29So I didn't want to set any expectations.
01:31The mission was really to elevate the voices of Americans, to tell some of their really
01:35painful stories, very emotional stories, and to let go and let God do the rest.
01:40And your stamina?
01:42Oh, I'm sorry.
01:44I talked to a lot of people.
01:47I copied some of the things we did for 15 hours, so I fasted for days into it.
01:51I stopped drinking water a long time ago.
01:53I think that had good and bad benefits.
01:55I definitely started cramping up from lack of water.
01:57So if some of you really drink nothing, at the end I was just trying to do something
02:01to stop my muscles from cramping.
02:03So there's just a lot of tactics I was using to try to make sure that I could stand for
02:07that long.
02:08Senator, do you feel like after all of this that your speech moved the needle in any way?
02:14And do you think Democrats should employ this tactic going forward to protest the Trump agenda?
02:18Again, I'm just finished.
02:20I haven't had much time to digest or think about it.
02:23I think that, you know, and you guys have written about and talked about it, there's
02:27a lot of people out there asking Democrats to do more and to take risks and do things
02:33differently.
02:34It seemed like the right thing to do.
02:36And from what my staff is telling me, a lot of people watched.
02:41And so we'll see what it is.
02:43I just think a lot of us have to do a lot more, including myself.
02:46Senator, I was going to say, I don't know if you've seen the reaction you've gotten,
02:49but millions of likes on TikTok.
02:51There were people outside this building with signs praising you for what you were doing.
02:55So can they expect more of this from you?
02:57Is this the future of Democratic resistance in the second Trump administration?
03:00I don't want to speak for Democrats.
03:02I speak for myself.
03:03My team and I have really been struggling in this period.
03:05Democrats have to own up for a lot.
03:08I think that we've contributed to where we are.
03:10I'm not just talking about losing the election.
03:13I'm talking about a lot of the ways that the partisan policies of this country have worked.
03:17And we should be stepping up and saying we accept a lot of responsibility for this moment.
03:21But we also have a lot of responsibility for leading this moment.
03:24And so my staff and I have talked a lot about other things that we can do to contribute
03:29to the larger cause of our country right now.
03:31I'm hoping that, especially social media, you all know that's my responsibility with
03:36the caucus.
03:38I want to think creatively and listen to my constituents.
03:41And I felt a lot of them really pushed me to do this.
03:44And I was glad that we were able to tell a lot of their stories.
03:46Senator, to follow up on Bonnie's question, and I'm sorry to be crude here,
03:49but there's been a lot of speculation on whether or not you're wearing some kind of device
03:53like a catheter or a diaper.
03:54And I'm sorry for even asking you this question.
03:56I feel weird about it.
03:58But were you wearing anything that allowed you to not have to go to the bathroom for 25 hours?
04:04Again, I don't want to send a doctor to get mad at me.
04:06I don't want my doctor to get mad at me.
04:08But I really spent time dehydrating myself beforehand.
04:11So I did not have to go to the bathroom.
04:13You didn't have to go to the bathroom at all for 25 hours?
04:15Again, my challenge was that my strategy was to stop eating.
04:24I think I stopped eating on Friday.
04:27And then to stop drinking the night before I started on Monday.
04:32And that had its benefits and it had its really downsides.
04:35And so instead of fighting or figuring out how to go to the bathroom,
04:38I ended up, I think, really unfortunately dehydrating myself.
04:42And I'm a former athlete, so I know when you get dehydrated, you get a lot of cramps.
04:45That was the biggest thing I was fighting was that different muscle groups were starting to really cramp up.
04:50And every once in a while I had like a spasm or something.
04:55So it was just a lot of physical challenges definitely making it that long for a guy.
05:00As Murphy and I joked, we're not the same sprite in our 40s like we were nine years ago.
05:05So I'm just really grateful.
05:07And I will tell you something.
05:09A lot of folks prayed with me.
05:11A lot of folks prayed for me.
05:12And I'm a person of faith.
05:14Many of us never had these conversations.
05:16But my family, we prayed.
05:19My colleagues who share my faith.
05:22And some of you might have seen it right before.
05:24Lisa Blunt Rochester and I prayed right there on the Senate floor.
05:29And I just knew I didn't want to carry any weight in my pants.
05:34So I took everything out from my wallet.
05:36But the one thing I kept in is a Bible verse I love.
05:40It's Isaiah 40-31.
05:42But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
05:46They shall mount up with wings as if on eagles.
05:50Sorry, I don't have my glasses on.
05:52They shall run and not be weary.
05:54And they shall walk and they shall not faint.
05:58So I just really lean on faith that we can get through this.
06:02And I'm just so grateful for my colleagues who really cover me in prayer.
06:07For Warnock who prayed with me last night.
06:09I could go through the folks.
06:11So I just put myself into it.
06:13I did what the constituents were saying.
06:14Do something different.
06:15Take risks.
06:16And once we crossed that like 15 hour that Murphy and I did.
06:21He and I checked in with each other.
06:23And we said let's keep going.
06:25And what was amazing to me is we created a lot of material.
06:29We had a really good case.
06:30I don't know what we're going to do with this.
06:32Because we didn't get through maybe half of the things we wanted to share with the American people.
06:36But in the end I think what was really important to us is that people heard the voices.
06:42The real authentic voices of Americans who are afraid, hurting, angry, demanding, frustrated.
06:48And also that they felt some of my heart.
06:52Senator, Democrats have struggled in recent elections.
06:55Do you think you sent a message tonight that you might be the future of this party?
06:58God bless America.
07:00No.
07:01I'm just trying to step up as we all should be thinking about doing.
07:07We all need to step up and lead.
07:09Not just Democrats.
07:10I try to make that point.
07:11This is a time when America needs some leaders.
07:13We're not about what we're against.
07:15We're about what we're for.
07:17And I'm really hoping that, as I said, a new generation of leaders in America are going to come.
07:21That generation's heroes, like John Lewis and John McCain, are being called home.
07:25It's time for us to lead boldly again.
07:28Where's our country that needs to...
07:30I can start thinking of visions that are not about defeating another political party
07:35but about bringing us to a new era in our country where we can be enlightened to nations.
07:40Senator, some of the cynics may say that this is...
07:44What's the first thing you're going to do when you get home?
07:46Check your warrant?
07:47I'm going to go back to my old...
07:48We're going to check the warrant.
07:49Don't worry.
07:50Thank you guys.