US senator speaks for 25 hours in protest against President Donald Trump

Cory Booker sets a filibuster record with marathon Senate speech

US Democratic Senator Cory Booker accused President Donald Trump of “recklessly” challenging the nation's democratic institutions in a marathon speech that broke a nearly seven-decade record on Tuesday for length.

The 55-year-old New Jersey politician, in a speech that began at 7pm on Monday and lasted 25 hours and five minutes, criticised the campaign by the Republican President and his billionaire top adviser Elon Musk to slash large sections of the federal government.

“Our institutions are being recklessly and unconstitutionally attacked and even shattered,” said Mr Booker, who was first elected to the Senate in 2013.

Mr Booker, who is black, broke the record for the longest continuous speech previously held by segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.

In the summer of 1957, Mr Thurmond launched a filibuster against civil rights legislation that lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes. In the end, Thurmond failed in his mission to block a bill that expanded federal protections of voting rights for black people.

As Mr Booker stood for hour after hour, he appeared to have nothing more than a couple glasses of water to sustain him. He later told reporters that he had fasted for days before the speech and stopped drinking fluids the night before.

He repeatedly referred to activists getting into “good trouble” by speaking out against Mr Trump's actions, using a term that the late Democratic Representative John Lewis, a civil-rights leader, had often employed.

Mr Trump in his first weeks in office has moved to outright shutter government arms including the Department of Education and withhold congressionally approved spending. His administration has also questioned the authority of the federal courts to constrain its policies.

Democratic voters have become restive in recent weeks as Mr Trump, backed by a Republican-controlled Congress, has shaken up long-established US alliances and cut more than 100,000 federal workers.

Their anger has been aimed both at Republican legislators and the party's own leaders, including top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer and top House of Representatives Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, for not being aggressive enough in challenging Mr Trump.

Mr Schumer paused Mr Booker late in his speech to ask, “Do you know you have broken the record?”

“I know now,” Mr Booker responded, dabbing his eyes with a tissue before continuing.