Cory Booker did not filibuster the Senate in the classic sense of the term last night. He said he did, and it generated good headlines for him like this from NBC New York, “Sen. Cory Booker launches talking filibuster to protest Trump’s agenda,” but the simple fact is that until this morning where his speech is still ongoing and now delaying the nomination for Matthew Whitaker, Cory Booker did not “disrupt” Senate business the way he said he aimed to. It’s very telling that while initial reports called it a filibuster last night, ones written after the full picture emerged call it a “speech.”
Sen. Booker did not call for a quorum last night. This may seem like tedious parliamentary procedure, and it is, but it’s vital to grasp this tedium if you want to understand the Senate because it has huge impacts in how it conducts business. A quorum is a simple concept, as the Senate rules state that (emphasis mine) “whenever upon such roll call it shall be ascertained that a quorum is not present, a majority of the Senators present may direct the Sergeant at Arms to request, and, when necessary, to compel the attendance of the absent Senators, which order shall be determined without debate; and pending its execution, and until a quorum shall be present, no debate nor motion, except to adjourn, or to recess pursuant to a previous order entered by unanimous consent, shall be in order.”
This means that Booker had the ability to call in Republican Senators to sit through his filibuster last night and hijack Senate business and he didn’t. He was there for the cameras because last night was a performance. It did not “disrupt” business the way Booker said it did because he did not call the Senate in to conduct its business.
Now today, Booker’s speech is still ongoing as I write this, and it has just bumped one item off the Senate’s agenda, meaning that over fourteen hours after it started, Booker has finally disrupted Senate business, which as far as I can tell, seems to be the first time the Senate Democrats have actually done so under the second Trump administration. As former House staffer Aaron Huertas noted, this began as a performance because Booker did not take the tedious steps to make Republicans really suffer through his speech, but it is now lasting long enough that it is trending towards having an actual impact.
Sen. Booker is crossing the performance / obstruction Rubicon — if he eats up a legislative day and Republicans have to reschedule the nomination for tomorrow or later, it’s a clear example of what advocates have been asking for, in line with using up debate time on Vought
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— Aaron Huertas (@aaronhuertas.bsky.social) April 1, 2025 at 8:54 AM
It’s important to understand granular Senate procedure because doing so enables you to see how Senate Democrats have been lying nonstop to your face this entire year. They are very clearly not, as their Senate Majority PAC wrote, “using every tool available to fight back against Donald Trump and Elon Musk.” Unanimous consent, another Senate procedure where one Senator has the power to slow the Senate way down by simply saying “I object to unanimous consent” the way that Tommy Tuberville did all last year while blocking military appointments, has not been used by any Democrat. It’s an objective fact that they are not using every tool available to them, they are spending far more time lying to their voters’ faces than actually utilizing all their options. Until Senate Democrats demonstrate that they care more about fighting Trump than gaslighting their own voters, nothing they do should be trusted. Booker may be earnest in his attempt to disrupt Senate business, but he has to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt because he belongs to a party with zero credibility run by a bunch of clueless gerontocrats who have never met a fight they weren’t eager to back down from.
Booker’s speech may wind up representing a turning point for a party constitutionally incapable of embracing aggressive tactics, or maybe Senate Democrats will realize after the delay of the Whitaker vote that they got too close to actually disrupting regular Senate business and decide that their primary goal is to lie to their voters to try to protect their seats. Every Senate Democrat is complicit in this lie that they are supposedly doing everything they can to disrupt Trump’s authoritarian push. They are not. From Bernie Sanders to Elizabeth Warren to Mark Warner to Chuck Schumer, every single one of them has the power to unilaterally slow things way down by objecting to unanimous consent, or to call for a quorum and force all Republicans to actually show up to work, but they don’t.
Democrats have proven for a fact that they are far more interested in saying they’re “using every tool available to fight back against Donald Trump and Elon Musk” than actually using every tool available to them. If Cory Booker is still speaking later today, Senate Democrats will be able to say for the first time in Trump’s second administration that they actually did obstruct a day of normal Senate business. At the very least, now that he has delayed one vote, Booker can say he is the sole Democrat who has actually slowed down the Trump administration’s business in the Senate, even if he still isn’t using every tool available to him.
Afternoon Update (2:45 EST): Booker is still talking, and should he still be going around 8 EST, he will break that bigot Strom Thurmond’s Senate record for longest filibuster ever. What a symbol that would be. Even if this did start as a hollow overnight performance similar to the one the Dems put on for Russell Vought’s nomination, Booker has now obstructed a day of work for the Senate. This is what the critiques around calling for a quorum and objecting to unanimous consent are centered around. Dems cannot stop this train, but they can slow it down. Booker is the first Senate Democrat whose actions are moving in the right direction, and in my book, he is now the rightful Senate Democratic leader for actually disrupting Trump’s agenda instead of voting for it like Chuck Schumer and so many of his colleagues still do.
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