Cory Booker on America’s Crisis of “Moral Leadership”

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

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Politics, Obama, News, Wnyc, Washington, Barack, President, Lizza, Wickenden

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🗓️ 28 April 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

As Donald Trump continues to launch unprecedented and innovative attacks on immigrants, civic institutions, and the rule of law, the Democratic response has been—in the eyes of many observers—tepid and inadequate. One answer to the sense of desperation came from Senator Cory Booker, who, on March 31st, launched a marathon speech on the Senate floor, calling on Americans to resist authoritarianism. Booker beat the record previously held by Senator Strom Thurmond’s twenty-four-hour-long filibuster of the Civil Rights Act, in 1957, and he spoke in detail about Americans who are in desperate straits because of federal job cuts and budget slashing. “We knew . . . if I could last twenty-four hours and eighteen minutes, that we could potentially command some attention from the public,” Booker tells David Remnick. “That’s the key here . . . to deal with the poverty of empathy we have in our nation right now.” Yet Booker bridles as Remnick asks about Democratic strategy to resist the Administration’s attacks. Instead, he emphasized the need for “Republicans of good conscience” to step up. “Playing this as a partisan game cheapens the larger cause of the country,” he argues. “This is the time that America needs moral leadership, and not political leadership.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the political scene.
0:07.0	I'm David Remnick.
0:08.3	Early each week, we bring you a conversation from our episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:15.8	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:22.9	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:26.9	April 30th marks 100 days of Donald Trump's second term.
0:31.7	And in that short time, the administration has carried out an unprecedented series of attacks
0:36.6	against legal immigrants,
0:38.9	against civic institutions and universities, against the rule of law itself. The president's
0:44.9	tariff policy and all its chaos has absolutely tanked the global economy. Many Americans who
0:51.9	are anguished about the administration are looking for someone to lead the opposition,
0:57.4	because the Democratic Party has, with some exceptions, been very cautious.
1:02.4	And congressional Republicans, in the words of Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,
1:07.0	are all afraid to stand up to Trump.
1:13.9	So in the face of this anguish, on March 31st,
1:18.7	Cory Booker of New Jersey launched an epic protest on the floor of the Senate.
1:24.3	Maybe you're an immigrant that's never broken the law. Maybe you're a citizen. Even if you think the administration's immigration agenda doesn't apply to you, please know
1:28.3	that the reckless behavior we're seeing erodes all of our rights.
1:33.3	And the American mother and the American child right now, whose husband was unjustly and illegally deported
1:40.3	and is right now in El Salvadorian prison.
1:43.3	Booker spoke for more than a day.
1:45.3	He spoke for 25 hours, finishing in the evening of April 1st.
	...

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