Booker endured hardship within the Senate chamber unlike any other before him when he held the Senate floor for 25 hours and 4 minutes from Monday to Tuesday night, a feat only rivaled by former South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond in 1957.
Thurmond, who fiercely opposed the Civil Rights Act, spoke for over 24 hours, though he did take a bathroom break.
Booker stood for his entire time on the floor, and never left to go to the bathroom. If he had done so, he would have yielded the floor.
According to Booker, a former Stanford football player, he hadn’t eaten since Friday and stopped drinking water in an effort to avoid needing to go to the bathroom. He did not wear a diaper or use a catheter, and appeared to be in visible discomfort toward the end of his time on the floor.
“I want to go a little bit past this, and then I’m going to deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling,” he said at 7:24 p.m. after he had broken Thurmond’s record.
Booker did not technically speak for 25 hours straight, as other Democrats spoke and asked questions while Booker remained in control of the floor. At one point, while Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was speaking and asking questions, Booker reminded him that he cannot yield the floor when Booker has it.
“You cannot yield the floor because I have the floor, sir. I retain the floor. This is one of the few times in my life I’ll get to tell Chuck Schumer what the rules are here,” he joked.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) acknowledged that it was particularly tough to continue a floor speech 20 or more hours in. “It’s really hard to get your body past hour 22 and 23,” Murphy said on Tuesday while Booker was still speaking. “I just don’t think he’s going to stop until he has to stop.”
Booker said he would go as long as he was “physically able.” That effort stopped at 8:04 p.m.
“This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right; it’s right or wrong. Let’s get in good trouble,” Booker said. “I yield the floor.” Booker admitted immediately afterwards that he was “sore,” and tired.
Many of those in the Senate chamber had to stay for much of Booker’s address, including some Republicans who had to preside over the floor all night. Some floor aides and police officers also had to stay up all night to accommodate the speech, Senate chaplain Barry Black said.
“We are grateful for the efforts of the floor staff, the Capitol Police, the stenographers, the pages and all those who have worked through the night. We pray you give them the strength they need for this day today,” Black said, giving Booker a temporary reprieve at noon.
Outside of standing, the most likely hardship for Booker was not running to the bathroom. Holding in urine can be dangerous and can cause painful urinary tract infections. Booker said, at the risk of bothering his doctor and the Senate doctor, that he dehydrated himself so he didn’t have to go to the bathroom.
His communications director, Jeff Giertz, told NPR that Booker was not wearing a diaper nor a catheter.
“Regardless, Booker earned bipartisan praise for the feat,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said in a post on X. “Whether you agree with him or not, the past 24+ hours was what most people think a filibuster actually looks like. Congratulations to @SenBooker for his historic feat (while staying on his feet!)”
Booker’s filibuster is only the second speech longer than 20 hours since 2013, which includes Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke for 21 hours and 18 minutes. Cruz said he often gets asked about not going to the bathroom.
“The most frequent question I would get about it is, OK, what do you do about going to the bathroom? And you can’t, you can’t leave the Senate floor. And the very simple answer is: Nothing in, nothing out,” Cruz told CBS News on Tuesday. He said he only drank a small glass of water during his speech in protest of Obamacare.
Cruz previously joked on Tuesday about pulling the fire alarm to stop Booker in a reference to former Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s incident.
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But why did Booker endure his long stint on the floor? Other than protesting the Trump administration, it had something to do with Thurmond.
“Strom Thurmond’s record always kind of just really irked me,” he said in an MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show interview later on Tuesday. “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 … became more important to me.”
