well US senator Cory Booker made history this week delivering the longest senate floor speech in history to protest the Trump administration's policies and actions during his first few months back in office for progressives it was the fire they've been waiting for from the party 25 hours and 5 minutes railing against Trump's agenda and the harm Democrats say it's inflicted but did it strike a cord loud enough to make real change our Washington DC correspondent Ben hulac was inside the chamber for the speech and joins me to share what he heard Ben good to talk to you obviously a very long day and night for all the folks there on the hill um what was the sense you got being in the room there about folks on both sides of the aisle who came in to see this now pretty historic speech yeah it's it takes a lot in a big moment for members of Congress to really sit up and and pay attention in some ways and there was a sense of history as it was building as Senator Booker was approaching this historic Mark last night and house members trickled over from their side of the capital throughout the day in and out of votes as um the day progressed and really Booker held the chamber in a wrapped commanding performance I would say for the last 45 minutes or so he's a pretty talented Storyteller he had people crying laughing Tammy bald was from Wisconsin she's a Democratic senator she was balling at one point when Booker was describing the last words of John Lewis over the phone to Booker John Lewis of course civil rights icon and then uh when Booker broke the Mark just an eruption of Applause very loud which in the Senate it's the state atmosphere it's very old school very demure and uh the a rule against app plotting from the gallery and of course the gallery was full of a lot of house Democrats and staffers and that rule was immediately thrown out the window rapturous Applause and then Booker kept going uh and he was absolutely mobbed trying to leave the floor after this Marathon effort last night so quite a big political stirring moment that a lot of people will remember yeah I mean you got that sense I watched the last hour and a half of it where it felt like the energy was was really palpable um were there Republicans in the room and and you know a lot of what people want to know is what are the practical implications of this what what did he want to achieve and and is he on his way to achieving it the there were some Republicans uh this really pushed back didn't didn't delay didn't ultimately block anything the goal really was to hold the nation's attention and to underscore what in Booker eyes are the list of Horrors that the Trump Administration is committing daily he talked a lot about generational change and being able as leader and called on his Democratic and Republican colleagues as well as the public to meet this moment of pivotal political shift in American history certainly you can't disagree with that everyone's still talking about it and so I wonder what's the sense today on the hill where are Democrats going from here because Booker's never been uh shy of the Limelight but he's been a little bit more muted in these first couple of months of the Trump Administration I was talking with house Democrats as they were healing in and out of the chamber yesterday in the Senate they walked over as I said from their side of the capital and talked to maybe 10 12 members and they were all really sort of aching for more of this they want more fight they want more inspiration they're the first folks to say we realize this isn't a a hard firm check on the Trump Administration republicans in Congress but they want to awaken some sort of uh spiritual push back within the party and a lot of people had John Lewis on their mind um I didn't bring him up they brought him up yeah they brought strong Thurman man who held this this uh Marathon speaking record for for since 1957 so it's a symbolic victory of course we'll see how it pans out you know Mr Booker has he of course ran for president in 2020 that fizzled out I was asking members would they back him they had a vote in the Senate would they back him for leader Bonnie Watson Coleman said oh yeah he's my guy and said yeah same for same for a presidential bid we'll see what pans out from that um you can check out Ben's full reporting on our website NJ Spotlight news.org Ben thanks so much for the chat my pleasure [Music]