Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) seized the Senate floor for more than 22 hours to protest President Donald Trump and the Turmp administration’s policies amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Merkley spoke from 6:21 p.m. ET on Oct. 21 until 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 22, taking time to pause for questions from other Senate Democrats.
The senator’s speech was one of the longest in the upper chamber’s history, coming just shy of Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) last April. Booker was also protesting the Trump administration and broke the Senate’s speech length record with his remarks, which endured for more than 25 hours, surpassing a 1957 speech by Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.), who was filibustering the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
At the end of his speech on Oct. 22, Merkley said authoritarianism is not around the corner, “it is here right now.”
He had accused Trump of defying the Constitution in his opening remarks on Oct. 21.
“I’ve come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells. We’re in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the Civil War. President Trump is shredding our Constitution,” Merkley said.
Merkley’s presentation consisted of using posters such as ones that read “Trump is using violence,” “Trump is weaponizing the Justice Department,” and “Ring the alarm bells: authoritarianism is here now.”
When it came to the Justice Department, he talked about the indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution as it pertained to a mortgage.
He also talked about former FBI Director James Comey, whom he said should not have been charged, claiming that there was not enough evidence against him to indict him. Comey was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding tied to when he testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020.
Merkley also complained about Trump’s tariffs, saying they have been turning “Main Street into Pain Street.” He said that Congress needs to reclaim the power to impose tariffs.
He decried the president sending National Guard personnel to his home state.
“President Trump wants us to believe that Portland, Oregon, in my home state, is full of chaos and riots,” he said, “because if he can say to the American people that there are riots, he can say there’s a rebellion. And if there’s a rebellion, he can use that to strengthen his authoritarian grip on our nation.”
Merkley noted the issue of sending the National Guard goes beyond Portland.
“This is an extraordinarily dangerous moment,” he said. “[We have] an authoritarian president proceeding to attack free speech, attack free press, weaponize the Department of Justice, and use it against those who disagree with him, and then seeking the court’s permission to send the military into our cities to attack people who are peaceful [sic] protesting.”
During his speech, Merkley yielded to his colleagues—including Sens. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.)—to ask questions and insert their thoughts about Trump.
The White House ridiculed Merkley’s ongoing speech.
“Democrats will do anything except vote to open the government,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Epoch Times.
“A useless overnight floor speech that no one watched will do nothing to help the millions of Americans who are missing paychecks, losing out on important benefits, or being otherwise harmed by the [Democrats’] decision to shut down the government over free health care for illegal aliens.”
Merkley’s speech comes as the government has been shut down for 22 days. The Senate has failed to pass what is known as a continuing resolution to fund the government at current levels. The House passed the measure shortly before the end of the federal fiscal year, which is Sept. 30.
The Senate is scheduled to vote on it on Wednesday.
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