Last week, Senator Corey Booker set a new record by delivering the longest speech ever in the history of the Senate.
The AP reported Senator Booker's speech in Congress as follows:
"In a feat of determination, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker held the Senate floor with a marathon speech that lasted all night and into Tuesday night, setting a historic mark to show Democrats’ resistance to President Donald Trump’s sweeping actions."
"Booker took to the Senate floor on Monday evening, saying he would remain there as long as he was “physically able.” It wasn’t until 25 hours and 5 minutes later that the 55-year-old senator, a former football tight end, finished speaking and limped off the floor. It set the record for the longest continuous Senate floor speech in the chamber’s history."
There were similar Booker-aggrandizing pieces about the filibuster from other 'news' outlets ranging from as CNN and NPR to Al Jazeera and Firstpost (India).
Booker appeared on Stephen Colbert's sparsely viewed late-night show for a 24-minute segment. He also appeared on "The View," MSNBC, CNN, NBC News, etc. The senator's YouTube channel has all the appearances dutifully posted. Booker was asked about not taking a bathroom break for 25 hours. Booker claimed he stopped eating on Friday and drinking Sunday night in preparation for his speech on Monday, which also happened to be April Fools' Day.
Most outlets called Booker's bloviation a "filibuster."
Britanica defines the filibuster as a "legislative practice, the parliamentary tactic used in the U.S. Senate by a minority of the senators -- sometimes even a single senator -- to delay or prevent parliamentary action by talking so long that the majority either grants concessions or withdraws the bill." The parliamentary action could be a vote on a bill that the senator thinks is detrimental to the nation.
In this case, the Senate was considering the nomination of Matthew Whitaker as the ambassador to NATO. Booker's babbling merely delayed the vote a day.
So what led to this this display?
Perhaps Booker paid an impromptu visit to a restaurant but wasn't recognized by the 20-something hostess, perhaps she confused his surname for his profession.
Perhaps Booker was denied an appearance on Democrat propaganda outlets such as NBC News, MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, etc. Maybe he wanted an hour-long interview or a town hall, and they scoffed at him with a "Why?"
Perhaps Booker couldn't bear AOC and Jasmine Crockett are receiving copious media attention.
What did Booker achieve?
Previously, Senator Strom Thurmond held the record for the longest Senate floor speech. Although Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, he failed to convince a single senator to change his vote, and the bill passed.
Booker is guaranteed an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.
How did the Democrat propagandists masquerading as journalists cover Booker's spectacle?
Time Magazine claimed, Cory Booker Reminds Democrats What Fighting Back Looks Like.
Axios claimed, Cory Booker's epic Senate speech puts Democrats back in the spotlight.
NBC News claimed, Cory Booker’s record-breaking speech ignites a Democratic base ‘desperate’ for a fighter.
But the cake for hyperbolic bilge was stolen by pollster Frank Luntz, who claimed that Booker’s speech “may have changed the course of political history” and made Booker “one of the leaders for the Democratic Party for 2028.”
Some outlets also focused on Booker's social media gains.
Vanity Fair reported that Booker "launched his TikTok account in conjunction with his record-breaking speech, which has since amassed over 700,000 followers," while the NYT reported about 350 million TikTok ‘likes.” Yahoo claimed that Booker's speech received hundreds of thousands of views and support on social media. Axios claimed that since Booker's speech, Google searches for Booker spiked 1,000% -- to more than half a million queries.
Axios also claimed that Booker's display was a "rare incidence of Democrats stealing the spotlight from Trump, who has commanded nearly every news cycle since returning to office."
Booker also managed to keep AOC and Jasimine Crockett out of the news cycle, but barely for a day. Crockett is back in the spotlight due to her preposterous claim made before a black church that America needs robust immigration because "we done picking cotton." AOC returned due to a poll that revealed she is leading Chuck Schumer in a primary by double digits for the NY Senate seat.
The tariff situation and the stock market crash have prevented the media from covering Booker a week after his display.
Booker, in his desperate bid to retain the spotlight, held a town hall in New Jersey. The AP reported the town hall as if Booker was a war hero returned victorious from the battlefield, they claimed that Booker's address was punctuated by celebratory shouts of “Cory, Cory.” It is not unlikely that the event, including the 'spontaneous' eruption of support, was curated by Booker's staff.
New Jersey faces numerous challenges, including the high cost of living, property taxes, crime, and homelessness. New Jersey also has issues with water management. Last year, New Jersey issued a drought warning as levels in reservoirs dwindled.
Did Booker's display make the lives of New Jerseyans better or safer or improve Democrat poll numbers? No!
The goal for Booker was solely to elevate himself. This display could enable Booker to close a lucrative deal for a book, podcast, or documentary. Perhaps his speaking fees will be hiked.
Booker is no stranger to such theatrics. Booker began his political career in 1998 with a surprise victory for a seat on the Municipal Council of Newark, defeating the four-term incumbent. He enabled this by drawing attention to the open-air drug dealing and associated violence for which he went on a 10-day hunger strike, lived in a tent and later in a motor home near drug-dealing areas of the city. It's likely he had security standing in case trouble arose.
Newark's drug problem remains unsolved, but Booker managed to con voters and secure electoral wins from the Municipal Council to the Senate.
Back in 2018, he made his ridiculous “I am Spartacus” comment during the debate over the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The Kavanaugh confirmation stands among the vilest smear campaigns run by the Democrats. Booker saw this as an opportunity to feign righteous indignation that he hoped would earn him admiration from his female voters. Booker also claimed to have released classified documents relating to Kavanaugh, but in reality, the files had already been cleared for public release.
Booker wrote a column about groping a fellow teen when they were 15, he claimed his experience working with rape survivors changed his views on sex and gender. Since he is a Democrat, he faced no condemnation. CNN defended Booker's behavior while lambasting Kavanaugh, despite the allegations not being factual.
Booker also wrote about overcoming homophobia; he claimed he "hated gays,” but eventually evolved into a champion for gay rights.
Booker is hoping to elicit a response such as "such honesty is rare in a politician. to err is human but to accept one's follies and evolve is divine."
Anyone paying close attention will realize that Booker's general demeanor, which includes his choice of words, his sanctimonious tone, his efforts to appear kind and compassionate, is an act. Perhaps decades of 'performing' has rendered him unable to comprehend reality.
If he was smarter, he would have chosen a better moment to blabber; delaying Matt Whitaker's confirmation by a day achieved nothing. But the hunger for publicity got the better of him.
Alas, most voters conflate actions with words, and hence, his 25-hour April Fools' display could make his voters in New Jersey, Democrat voters, feel proud and think he stood up for them.
But not everyone was fooled.
The mainstream media ignored the loud voices of protesters at Booker's town hall that frequently interrupted Booker's talk, and some commentators could see through Booker's stunt.
Image: AT via Magic Studio
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