Cory Booker broke the Senate record for longest floor speech last April defending democracy.
Now he's calling the tool he used "an awful tool" – and demanding Democrats get to keep it anyway.
He went on MSNBC Wednesday night and said something that would embarrass a first-year law student.
Booker's Logic, Decoded
Here's what he actually said, stripped of emotion: the filibuster is terrible and corrupted, Democrats must reform it – but not yet, because they need it to block Republicans right now.
That's not a principle.
That's a parking spot.
Booker invoked the Civil Rights Movement to condemn the filibuster as a tool of racist obstruction.
https://twitter.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/2011185026294075613?s=20
He's not wrong about the history – Southern Democrats used the filibuster to block the Civil Rights Act for 60 days in 1964, and Strom Thurmond set the all-time record speaking against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes.
But Booker conveniently left out the next sentence: Democrats spent years doing exactly what those segregationists did – using the filibuster to block everything Republicans wanted to pass.
When Kamala Harris was in the Senate, she urged McConnell to preserve the filibuster to protect what she called the "rights and prerogatives" of the minority.
Cory Booker didn't object then.
The Tool Democrats Loved Until It Stopped Working for Them
Booker told MSNBC he wants a "real filibuster" – the kind where you stand on the floor and keep talking.
He did that last April for 25 hours.
It accomplished nothing.
The Senate had already voted to limit debate before Booker took the floor – meaning he could delay the vote on the Trump NATO nominee he was protesting, but he couldn't stop it.
That's not a civil rights legacy.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2053508832328859713?s=20
That's political theater with sore feet.
Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill last July without a single Democrat vote, using reconciliation to bypass the 60-vote filibuster threshold entirely.
Senate Republicans are now doing it again on immigration enforcement funding – $71.8 billion through 2029 – that Democrats cannot touch regardless of how long Booker stands at a podium.
Democrats Want the Rules to Change Depending on Who's Winning
Trump is not a "kleptocrat undermining democracy."
He's passing legislation through the constitutional process that Democrats refuse to engage with.
The Senate voted.
The House voted.
The President signed it.
That's how it's supposed to work.
https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/2056197259251900542?s=20
What Booker is calling an attack on democracy is called losing an election.
His party lost – badly – because 77 million Americans looked at open borders, 40-year-high inflation, and cities run by Democrats, and said no thank you.
Now Booker wants to lecture the winners about corrupted tools while simultaneously demanding the right to use those tools to stop the agenda voters chose.
Here's the tell: Booker didn't call for filibuster reform when Democrats ran the Senate and used it to block Republican priorities.
He's calling for it now because it's the only weapon Democrats have left – and Republicans have already found the workaround.
The filibuster Booker spent 25 hours pretending to use is now irrelevant to the fight he's actually in.
He just hasn't figured out what to do about that yet.
Sources:
- Ian Hanchett, "Booker: Filibuster Is 'Awful Tool', Need 'Real Filibuster', 'Right Now' We'll Do 'Everything' to Stop GOP," Breitbart, May 21, 2026.
- National Constitution Center Staff, "Was Cory Booker's Speech a Filibuster?" Constitution Center, April 2, 2025.
- Jonathan Turley, "Democrats cannot erase the history or hypocrisy of the Senate filibuster," The Hill, March 28, 2021.
- Fox News Staff, "Several provisions fail to pass muster with Senate rules in 'big, beautiful bill,'" Fox News, June 20, 2025.
- Washington Times Staff, "GOP's filibuster-proof bill spends $69B on immigration force, $1B White House," Washington Times, May 5, 2026.