What Happened Yesterday
I interrupt our usual scheduled broadcast for a review of 1 April 2025
I admit, I definitely had other plans for today’s Substack. But then history started happening right in front of my eyes and I just COULD NOT let this pass unmentioned.
I admit, I did not know what was happening until it was already in the 17th hour, but when I opened Threads yesterday, Cory Booker’s 25 hour and five minute speech was my entire feed. And I spent the rest of yesterday afternoon, into yesterday evening watching in awe as Cory Booker, no sleep, no food, just some water and sheer determination, continued to speak with occasional reprieves from his colleagues who asked him questions.
I think the way that he searched through his notes, grabbed that little slip of paper, and then clearly stated, “I will yield for a question while retaining the floor,” will forever be engraved in my mind now.
The fact that he could deliver a powerful speech that still made sense by the 24th hour was incredible.
Also, the way Threads lit up with hope in a way that I haven’t seen since January.
Now, there will be article after article going on about exactly what happened. Was this useful? Was it just grandstanding? The White House (according to the NYT) says that this was just Booker’s “I am Sparticus” moment, and that it had no weight.
But you know what I saw yesterday? Hope. Someone was doing something. It got in the way of business as usual in the Senate. The live feed from the floor of the senate was suddenly on every screen. Whether it was people just watching and waiting to see if Cory Booker could surpass the previous record holder (a racist senator trying to get in the way of a civil rights bill in 1957), or people who genuinely wanted to just know what was going on - it got attention, and it gave us a taste of hope for the first time since the inauguration in January.
And while Cory Booker was speaking, there was movement in the House of Representatives, too. “House Republican leaders on Tuesday canceled votes for the rest of the week after a band of GOP lawmakers staged a rebellion on the floor, bringing legislative action to a screeching halt,” says The Hill.1 “Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) successfully used an arcane and rarely successful discharge petition procedure to force a vote on Rep. Brittany Pettersen’s (D-Colo.) resolution to allow members who give birth or lawmakers whose spouses give birth to have another member vote for them for 12 weeks.” The House Rules Committee tried to change the language that would have killed this effort, but… “That hardball tactic, however, failed Tuesday when nine Republicans voted with Democrats to torpedo the procedural vote, bringing key legislative action on the floor to a halt. Without adopting a rule, the House is unable to debate and vote on big-ticket legislative items.”
“‘We said don't f*** with moms,’ Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., said on the steps of the U.S. Capitol alongside Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.”2
Need resources on what happened for a middle or high school classroom? I’ve thrown one together that you can download for free here: Filibuster Worksheet - Cory Booker Speech 2025
House cancels rest of votes for week after GOP floor rebellion | The Hill
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5226248-house-cancels-votes-gop-rebellion/
Plan to allow proxy voting for new parents brings House to a halt : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/01/nx-s1-5347921/congress-proxy-voting-new-parents