Democrat Jeff Merkley breaks state record with 22-hour Senate speech to protest Trump

[Thiệu Ngô]

WASHINGTON – Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, set a new state record after he delivered a marathon speech on the Senate floor in protest of President Donald Trump's policies as lawmakers remain at odds to reopen the federal government.

By Zachary Schermele , Rebecca Morin

The Democrat held the floor for over 22 hours, a new record for the longest floor speech given by an Oregon senator. However, he did not surpass the record of his colleague Sen. Cory Booker.

Booker, D-New Jersey, in April delivered the longest recorded floor speech in Senate history at 25 hours. He broke the 24 hours and 18 minute record set by segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond in 1957.

Merkley began speaking at 6:21 on Oct. 21 and stopped just past 5 p.m. on Oct. 22. Senator Wayne Morse, I-Oregon, previously held the record for the longest floor speech for Oregon senators at 22 hours and 26 minutes.

Merkley said his long-running remarks were an effort to sound the alarm on both the government shutdown and Trump. He accused the president of dragging the country "further into authoritarianism."

"Trump's plan is to replace government by and for the people with government by and for the powerful," he said at one point.

"This is an incredible threat to our nation, to the entire vision of our Constitution," he said at another point. "I don't believe there's a single senator here in the United States Senate who wants to see freedom crushed and authoritarian rule established here in the United States of America ... Our founders did not want the president to be a king."

Merkley's talk-a-thon comes as Democrats have become increasingly willing to resort to drastic measures to exert what relatively little political leverage they have in Congress over Republicans. The government shutdown, which is largely rooted in Democrats' demands over health care policy and the refusal of GOP leaders to negotiate over those requests while on a funding deadline, has now become the second longest in U.S. history.

Prior to Wednesday, Merkley's own longest speech on the Senate floor was in 2017, lasting 15 hours and 27 minutes.

He wasn't totally alone up there this week. Throughout his hourslong speech, Merkley received help from other Democratic lawmakers, who asked him questions and interjected intermittently to give him brief breaks. By early Wednesday afternoon, the senator had hit a second wind, though he seemed to be feeling the physical effects of standing indefinitely at points during the wee hours of the night.

"I want to untie my shoelace because standing in one place for this much time, well, made my shoes a little tight," Merkley said at 2:45 a.m. "That feels a little better. I don't recommend standing through the night and talking. Not a healthy pursuit."