Sen. Cory Booker continued his tour of adoring media on Monday as he joined CBS and The Late Show host Stephen Colbert for a three-segment interview to look back at his 25-hour talk session and ahead to what comes next. Booker has been eager to compare himself to the Civil Rights Movement, and Colbert was more than willing to assist him in those efforts.
Colbert declared, “So, one of the nice aspects of it, now, you are up there, you weren't talking about you. You were talking about our nation, the challenges it faces, not just these challenges, but the challenges we always face and the need to face them in some realistic and collaborative way. But along the way of talking about that, you managed to wipe out Strom Thurmond's 1957 record. Which was shameful. Can you remind everybody what the previous record was held and trying to stop?
Booker replied, “Yeah, Strom Thurmond, when he was actually about my age, was trying to stop civil rights and try to stop the civil rights legislation while legends were out there fighting for it in the streets. He was trying to block the legislation, and I want to say that he held that record for 68 years, but in many ways, he planted a seed to just really demonstrate that he was not successful, and a black guy came around and broke that record, so—”
After Colbert called that “a poetic denouement,” Booker rolled on, “Yeah, but look, the reality is he was not successful. I mean, I may have broke the speaking record, but he wasn't successful in stopping civil rights from happening because black people and white people and Asian people, Christian, Jewish, Muslim all joined together in this rainbow coalition that overcame what he was doing, and that’s the secret: change has never come from Washington.”
Wrapping himself in the legacy of that era of history, Booker added, “It often comes despite Washington, and it comes to Washington by American people who are saying, ‘I am not satisfied with what's going on, and I'm going to join a larger movement because it's a moral moment.’ They said that in the civil rights movement, in the labor movement, in the LGBTQ movement. People who were from varied backgrounds said, 'This is a moral moment I'm not going to be a spectator to American history. I'm going to join the cause of making American history.'”
Later, Colbert recalled his previous interview with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and mourned, “Let's talk about action and inaction, and one of the things that made some people mad at the Democratic leadership is voting for the CR which is not a clean CR, that had a lot of cuts in it, that seemed like the only place where the Democrats could exercise any leverage over what was going on, the slash and burn going on in Washington, D.C. I had Senator Schumer on last week to talk about this, and I have great respect for Senator Schumer, but I found his answers less than nutritious. I've been wondering why you voted against it.”
If $13 billion in non-defense spending is “slash and burn,” then this country will never get its spending under control. As it was, Booker tried to wax poetic, “Look, for me, that was a catalytic point, and I thought that if we took a stand there, then we would not stand alone. I think faith is one of these things there when you step out to scary dark things, faith is one of two things is going to happen. You're going to find solid ground underneath you, or the universe will send you people that will teach you how to fly, that will soar with you.”
The last time Booker did something like this was his infamous Spartacus shtick, only to face planted in the Democratic primary, a result that will likely repeat itself because ultimately this was a “Hey, look at me” moment, not a profound 2025 version of the Civil Rights Movement.
Here is a transcript for the April 7-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
4/8/2025
12:40 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: So, one of the nice aspects of it, now, you are up there, you weren't talking about you. You were talking about our nation, the challenges it faces, not just these challenges, but the challenges we always face and the need to face them in some realistic and collaborative way. But along the way of talking about that, you managed to wipe out Strom Thurmond's 1957 record. Which was shameful. Can you remind everybody what the previous record was held and trying to stop?
CORY BOOKER: Yeah, Strom Thurmond, when he was actually about my age, was trying to stop civil rights and try to stop the civil rights legislation while legends were out there fighting for it in the streets. He was trying to block the legislation and I want to say that he held that record for 68 years, but in many ways, he planted a seed to just really demonstrate that he was not successful, and a black guy came around and broke that record, so—
COLBERT: That's a poetic denouement to that moment.
BOOKER: Yeah, but look, the reality is he was not successful. I mean, I may have broke the speaking record, but he wasn't successful in stopping civil rights from happening because black people and white people and Asian people, Christian, Jewish, Muslim all joined together in this rainbow coalition that overcame what he was doing, and that’s the secret: change has never come from Washington. It often comes despite Washington, and it comes to Washington by American people who are saying, “I am not satisfied with what's going on, and I'm going to join a larger movement because it's a moral moment.”
They said that in the civil rights movement, in the labor movement, in the LGBTQ movement. People who were from varied backgrounds said, “This is a moral moment I'm not going to be a spectator to American history. I'm going to join the cause of making American history.”
…
COLBERT: Let's talk about action and inaction, and one of the things that made some people mad at the Democratic leadership is voting for the CR—
BOOKER: Right.
COLBERT: -- which is not a clean CR, that had a lot of cuts in it, that seemed like the only place where the Democrats could exercise any leverage over what was going on, the slash and burn going on in Washington, D.C. I had Senator Schumer on last week to talk about this, and I have great respect for Senator Schumer, but I found his answers less than nutritious. I've been wondering why you voted against it.
BOOKER: Look, for me, that was a catalytic point, and I thought that if we took a stand there, then we would not stand alone. I think faith is one of these things there when you step out to scary dark things, faith is one of two things is going to happen. You're going to find solid ground underneath you, or the universe will send you people that will teach you how to fly, that will soar with you.
When we started that 25-hour journey we had no idea how people were going to react, but we knew we needed to do something different and take a risk. I thought the American people, if we took that stand, and the Republicans shut down the government, I thought they would be with our side and it would be a galvanizing moment. But we disagreed. What we can’t do now, years and years, a very good portion of my life was defined by playing football, and I used no when we were going to score on the other team. And how did I know we were going to score on the other team? Is when I started hearing people in that huddle argue amongst themselves, demean or degrade them for missing a tackle or making a bad play.
This is one of those moments where we are going to have differences, but I’m telling you: if everybody in your coalition agrees with everything you believe in, your coalition is not big enough. We can have some room for mistakes, we can have some room for divisions, but when it comes to unifying in the cause of our country when millions of Americans are literally on the verge of losing their health care, when seniors who have been saving for retirements have seen their 401(k)s lose so much money that they now realize they may have to extend retirement for years, when we have veterans, perhaps the people that deserve our deepest respect and appreciation, losing their jobs, being fired more than any president has fired veterans and losing the services that they deserve, this is a time to say "Okay, I may disagree with you. I may disagree with what you did but right now they're going to unify in this fight because we've got bigger challenges before us."
