Cory Booker Is Filibustering in Opposition to the Trump Administration

Old-fashioned filibustering is not something you see too often. It's a political tool that gives senators the chance to speak for as long as they are able, and it's typically used to protest against something. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey is currently engaged in exactly this kind of protest, and has been speaking on the floor of the Senate for 15 hours as of this writing.

Following the news that Booker is filibustering, many wanted to better understand what he's trying to accomplish. Here's what we know.

Booker is filibustering in order to protest the actions of the Trump administration, and because he's trying to signal to the American people that what is happening in Washington is far from normal, per NPR.

"I've been hearing from people all over my state and indeed all over the nation calling upon folks in Congress to do more, to do things that recognize the urgency, the crisis of the moment," Booker said in a pre-recorded video before taking the floor.

"And so we all have a responsibility, I believe, to do something different, to cause — as [late Rep.] John Lewis said — 'good trouble,' and that includes me," he continued.

Given that his speech has gone on for 14 hours (with breaks that are made possible by giving his Democratic colleagues a chance to ask him questions), Booker has covered a lot of ground in a speech that started at 7 p.m. ET on March 31.

Among his targets, though, were Trump himself as well as Trump's senior adviser Elon Musk, who Booker said were showing a "complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the needs of the American people."

He also discussed social security, healthcare, immigration, the economy, and education, among other topics, as he discussed the many ways he felt Trump was failing America.

"In just 71 days, the president has inflicted harm after harm on Americans' safety, financial stability, the foundations of our democracy, and any sense of common decency," Booker said in his introductory remarks. "These are not normal times in our nation. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate."

Per the rules of the Senate, Booker will have the floor until he chooses to give it up. Filibustering becomes an endurance test at some point, but it's one that Booker is hopeful will show that there are people in Washington who are messaging about the threats they see the Trump administration posing to America.

Of course, the filibuster is a tool that can be used by people of all political beliefs. One of the longest filibusters in history came from Senator Strom Thurmond, a strong opponent of civil rights legislation, who filibustered in an attempt to prevent new civil rights laws from being passed. If those laws had failed to pass, Booker might not have been able to offer the kind of filibuster that he's currently in the middle of.