Senator Cory Booker took to the Senate floor Monday to deliver what he described as a bold stand against Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and, apparently, boredom itself. For reasons not entirely clear to anyone outside of Booker’s own imagination, the New Jersey Democrat launched into an extended speech that he claimed would continue “as long as I am physically able to go.” The end goal? Unspecified. The impact? Negligible. The melodrama? Predictable.
“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate,” he declared. Which would be a dramatic statement—if the Senate hadn’t already concluded its voting schedule for the day before he even started talking. In other words, he was “disrupting” nothing but the patience of the night staff and a few tired Capitol police officers who probably had better things to do than babysit another unearned political performance.
Time to speak up pic.twitter.com/03r0s5yGPX
— Sen. Cory Booker (@SenBooker) March 31, 2025
CNN, hardly a bastion of right-wing criticism, even stepped in to clarify that this was not a filibuster, despite the breathless praise from Booker’s allies like Sen. Chris Murphy. In fact, according to Senate procedure, Booker was perfectly free to take breaks, yield the floor, and treat his speech like a leisurely jog interrupted by snack breaks—not exactly the heroic stand he seemed to think he was staging.
But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. This is, after all, the same Cory Booker who once declared a “Spartacus moment” during the Kavanaugh hearings, only to later admit that the documents he “heroically” released weren’t actually restricted. It’s a pattern: big stagecraft, little substance.
New Jersey Sen. @CoryBooker is on the Senate floor, saying, “I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able” to protest President Trump and Elon Musk.
Watch live: https://t.co/Zi8OhJXJej pic.twitter.com/CXT92L6V5P
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) April 1, 2025
Even Booker’s testosterone has taken the stage before. In 2020, he explained on late-night TV that his “testosterone sometimes makes [him] want to punch” Trump—before immediately walking it back by noting that would be unfair to Trump due to his physical “weakness.” Tough talk, right up until the moment it risks actual consequences.
The internet responded to Booker’s latest one-man show with a mix of mockery and mild concern. Conservative Forum posted a GIF of Trump saying, “Nobody cares.” Others pointed out that while Booker was pontificating, the rest of the Senate was gone, and the only person left to endure it appeared to be Murphy, sitting there like a parent at a middle school talent show waiting for the monologue to end.
I was watching “Derry Girls.” It was more interesting and more masculine than your public festival of onanism. https://t.co/NnOtxQIDxr
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) April 1, 2025
For all the self-serious rhetoric—“Our country is in crisis,” “These are not normal times,” “I rise!”—there was no legislation at stake, no policy being blocked, and no actual goal achieved. It was, in essence, a performance: political cosplay performed in front of an empty chamber and an unimpressed nation.
.@CoryBooker: “My testosterone sometimes makes me want to feel like punching [Trump], which would be bad for this elderly, out-of-shape man that he is if I did that — a physically weak specimen.” pic.twitter.com/IqOI9c5RMZ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 23, 2019
