Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about a 22-hour-long Senate speech.

Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon held the Senate floor for 22 hours and 37 minutes.

It's the third longest Senate speech in history. We're going to go

over some of the highlights. The senator who turned 69 on Friday began speaking around 6.24 p.m. on

Tuesday and continued until just after 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

During this period, the senator wasn't allowed any real breaks without yielding his time.

His theme was pretty apparent, and for the most part, during his lengthy oration, he stayed on message,

which was a warning of the creeping dangers of authoritarianism coming from the White House.

Shortly after starting his speech, he laid out the stakes as he sees it, saying, quote,

I've come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells. We're in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the Civil War. President Trump is shredding our Constitution. Most of the time

during the marathon speech, he was standing next to a sign that said, ring the alarm bells.

Authoritarianism is here now.

He went on, at one point saying, quote,

President Trump wants us to believe that Portland, Oregon, in my home state,

is full of chaos and riots.

Because if he can say to the American people that there are riots,

he can say there's a rebellion. And if there's a rebellion, he can use that to strengthen his

authoritarian grip on our nation. He referenced back to events in his home states several

times, adding, quote,

this is an extraordinarily dangerous moment,

an authoritarian president proceeding to attack free speech,

...