John,
Earlier tonight, Cory stepped off the Senate floor after speaking for over 25 hours — breaking the previous record set by Senator Strom Thurmond in 1957 during his infamous filibuster of the Civil Rights Act. And just moments ago, he spoke with Rachel Maddow about why he chose to stand up and use his voice:
I hope that we all serve to be ignition points for each other. We’ve got to continue to ignite this movement. The only thing that stopped Donald Trump from tearing away the Affordable Care Act was the engagement of tens of thousands of Americans who didn’t think they would become little lobbyists or activists or come down to the Capitol or protest in their communities.
Americans are not waiting for us in Congress to lead — they’ve decided to take matters into their own hands and do something different. Those people were demanding me to catch up. To try to do what they’re doing. This is about folks leading from their hearts and deciding they’re not going to let business as usual go on in their lives.
I’m hoping that this is one part of a larger effort that tries to stop them from doing what they’re about to do. They’re going to try to push through a bill that is going to gut $880 billion from Medicaid. They’re going to try to put forward a bill that is going to give tax cuts to the wealthiest in our countries — and they’re still going to blow one of the single-president deficits into our national debt.
It’s outrageous, and we have got to try to stop them in the same way that the people of this country were able to convince good-conscience Republicans to change their votes and stop them from doing it. All of us have to be a part of that. We can’t sit back and do nothing.
John, thank you for standing up and raising your voice alongside Cory's.
— Team Booker
