This Was the Week Democrats Finally Got off Their Asses

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

“I confess that I have been imperfect,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) after the longest night of his life. “I confess that I’ve been inadequate to the moment. I confess that the Democratic party has made terrible mistakes that gave a lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say, ‘We will do better.’”

By the time he concluded his remarks Tuesday evening, Booker had broken the nearly seven-decade record for the longest floor speech in the history of the United States Senate. It’s easy to write off the 25-hour address as an empty gesture. While it didn’t “block” any part of the Republican agenda from advancing, it served to rally Democrats who have been otherwise at a loss for a cohesive response to Trump 2.0.

Booker’s speech managed to break through normal containment on C-SPAN. According to Booker’s office, his talk nabbed more than 350 million likes on his TikTok channel, 28,000 voicemails “of encouragement” on his Senate office phone line, and more than 300,000 concurrent viewers on his official live-stream platforms. Naturally, Democrats took the opportunity to do some fundraising, as well, but those totals won’t be known for some time.

As for the physical toll the speech took on Booker, 55, he told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that his Oura ring sleep score¹ was “nothing.” He refrained from eating or drinking in the days leading up to the speech to avoid the need for a bathroom break and didn’t take a seat even once for the full 25 hours.²

But Booker’s marathon filibuster wasn’t the whole story. This week has seen Democrats far more organized than they have been at any other point since Election Day.