‘Emotionally fed’: Cory Booker reflects on ‘challenge’ of historic floor speech

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said Tuesday night that it wasn’t until the 15th hour of his record-breaking marathon speech that he realized he could beat the record for the longest Senate floor speech.

“I really, at that point, felt like I could do it,” Booker said. "I felt I could do it, and, I will tell you the reality is that I really felt the energy of a lot of folks… so I’m just grateful right now, despite the fact that I’m in rough shape."

Fresh off his historic speech, Booker opened up to CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview moments after he brought his 25-hour takedown of Trump administration policies to an end. Tapper made clear to viewers that the Democratic lawmaker was sitting on a chair for the interview before asking how he was feeling.

“Well, I'm physically not in the best shape,” Booker said. “But I am emotionally just feeling really fed right now and grateful and kind of just really grateful for a lot of the people who lent support to the effort.”

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Booker added that it was “just different” from his days as a college football player while making clear the physical challenge that the speech entailed.

“I had to think of a lot of strategic things to do in order to prepare for it,” he told the CNN host. “And then, and you're right, I’m a lot older than that football player and a lot less hair, too, so it was a challenge, it was a trial. But I really felt lifted by the energy as the Congress people started coming over.”

Booker credited Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) for helping him through his day-long protest of President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk. “Chris was amazing,” he said.

“It was a lot of folks' energy that really carried me to try to do as I sort of framed the whole speech with John Lewis' demand to all of us as his spirit just talked a lot about doing good trouble, necessary trouble."

Watch the clip below or at this link.