well this week US Senator Cory Booker grabbed the spotlight delivering the longest Senate floor speech in history an impassioned 25-hour and fiveminute plea that called on everyday Americans to fight President Trump's agenda but long before this epic speech Booker had a knack for drawing eyeballs almost always to call attention to public issues that weren't otherwise getting noticed detractors called them political stunts for those who've been covering the senator since before he was a national name with millions of social media followers the marathon filibuster was quintessential Booker for more on that I'm joined by our senior political correspondent David Cruz who has been covering Booker for we won't say how many how many years um but there's been a lot of talk about this that he's not shy of the limelight um is this just who Booker is i mean walk us back through history well I think it is who Cy Booker is i mean going way back to the the late 90s when he staged a hunger strike outside the projects in Newark through saving a woman from a fire uh there's been that kind of attention seeking um events or or I don't know what you would call them really stunts m um but it depends on who you talk to whether or not they're effective or not um nationally because you know we we also followed Booker when he ran for president all across the country um they love that stuff or they loved that stuff um and while people in Jersey were like uh we're over it now you know uh I think in the middle of the country and heading out west people are like oh that Cory Booker is so cool he's a dogooder yeah he shovels the snow when he's the mayor he saves dogs who are freezing outside and puts them in his car or in in a in a police car i mean those are all things though that did build up his reputation his name um and really his whether you like him or hate him I mean his likability as just an an everyday person who's out there to to do some good his brand yeah um and and I will say that having really covered him for a hundred years um I've never seen him not that way yeah yeah uh even in unguarded moments i mean there are times when we've been in De Moine Iowa in a steaming hot basement of a church uh where anybody would just be impatient you know and he was away with his staff in a corner and something had gone wrong or whatever where most politicians would be like he was just really kind of cool about it and if ever there was an opportunity for him to be something other than what he was projecting it was in that circumstance and I will say I've never seen him not that way and so you have to assume that that's the genuine Cy Booker i mean were there moments that stuck out to you i'm thinking about too back when he did that snap challenge and posted it on social media um you know he got a little backlash for it because people said like "This is how I live my life every day and and you're out here getting more followers by doing this challenge."

But his goal was to show people how difficult it was to live on $4 or whatever it was a day that he had um as part of the food stamp program i mean is it just the way he would go about it and the fact that he does have this pension for for drawing for drawing eyes yeah he does sometimes have a tendency to stay on the stage too long you know after you've wowed the audience you got to leave him wanting a little more and I think sometimes he sticks around too much you know 25 hours is a long time to listen to Cory Booker um but that was clearly something else it was you know the point was to be there for 25 hours um but I think that the Spartacus from a couple that came during the Brett Kavanaaugh hearings yeah supreme Court justice he just stayed on too long and he beat the metaphor to death I think and the right particularly Republicans and Republicans on the right cannot stand him really don't um so then how effective is that then in leading the Democrats through what is definitely an identity crisis moment for them but also someone who kind of needs to lead the charge if they are going to fight back in this way that they say they want to yeah even in um in when there's no voice out there even a whisper has a a positive effect and I think Democrats uh have been incredibly quiet and within the party there's this sense that can we get a champion please and I think that Cy Booker saw that vacuum uh and stepped into it and I think overall this was very effective for Democrats who I've talked to who even those who aren't big Cy Booker fans felt like he really uh hit a home run this time what the followup is to that is a great question people are were wondering if this was the launch of Cy Booker for president well that's not impossible yeah uh all right senior political correspondent David Cruz for us david thanks for coming in good to see you [Music]