Between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, the major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC were head over heels for Senator Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) 25-hour-long, “marathon” act of chicanery “speaking in a protest” against Trump and “shin[ning] a spotlight on” his “rapid fire and controversial actions” through “the little bit of power and influence” they have in Washington.
At one point, one anchor even compared Booker to the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Thus far, the networks have spent five minutes and 19 seconds on their flagship morning and evening news shows (excluding CBS Evening News Plus and CBS Mornings Plus, although we’ll include them for their bias below).
Tuesday’s CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today were the first to bring it up. CBS co-host Gayle King — whom Booker counts as a personal friend but wasn’t disclosed, of course — gushed that viewers were “looking now at a live shot of the Senate floor where Senator Cory Booker is speaking in a protest against President Trump’s policies” and “talking all night.”
“He started at 7:00 Eastern time, more than 12 hours ago. The senator spent most of his time reading letters from voters, both Democrats and Republicans, who say they have been hurt by the changes since Donald Trump took office. He says that he will keep talking as long as he is physically able to do so,” King added.
“Still a lot of energy in his voice, it seems,” co-host Tony Dokoupil replied.
Over on Today, co-host Craig Melvin cheered Booker for “launching a marathon speech” and senior White House correspondent Garrett Haake lauded Booker for “still speaking through this morning as Democrats try to shine a spotlight on President Trump's rapid fire and controversial actions in these first ten weeks.”
Tuesday night brought about more free PR. ABC’s World News Tonight had chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce on the case, stating this ahead of a Booker soundbite: “Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey taking to the Senate floor for over 20 hours, speaking out against the Trump administration, in what he calls a nation in crisis.”
NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt didn’t refer to Booker as Spartacus, but he did offer the comparison to the movie starring Jimmy Stewart in a tease: “And Mr. Booker takes on Washington. The Democrat whose marathon Senate speech opposing the White House is smashing records.”
Senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez touted the far-left base as having a point: “[A]s Democrats face criticism from their base for not effectively countering the cuts, a symbolic effort by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker criticizing the President at the Capitol for over 23 hours.”
CBS stashed its PM mention of Booker on CBS Evening News Plus. A liberal historian of sorts pretending to be a journalist, anchor John Dickerson at least admitted it was all for show:
Despite Booker having finally ended the charade later Tuesday night, the Wednesday morning news shows were ebullient over Booker’s showboating.
ABC’s Good Morning America had co-hosts Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos and Trump-hating correspondent Rachel Scott were giddy and in awe as though Booker were some war hero (click “expand”):
ROBERTS: And, Rachel, we know, overnight, that New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, he — he set a record, didn’t he?
SCOTT: Yeah, he — he did. 25 hours and four minutes later, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker broke the record for the longest speech given on the Senate floor. He said he was doing it all to protest actions taken by the Trump administration from immigration to those cuts to the federal workforce. It comes as Democrats are really trying to find their footing in how to counter President Trump’s agenda and his message. But to pull off that marathon speech, he had to stay standing the entire time with no bathroom breaks, Robin.
ROBERTS: Okay. We’ll leave it at that. Thank you, Rachel. George?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Talked about fasting before he did that. What a record he set yesterday.
NBC’s Today also had a half segment on Booker’s shenanigans. Chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander gushed that “Booker’s historic speech broke the previous record held by segregationist Strom Thurmond, who was trying to block the passage of a civil rights bill overnight, which Booker said was part of his motivation to keep going.”
CBS Mornings took up roughly two minutes (1:59) with King cheering her friend for having “made history” with “no bathroom breaks, no food” in “protesting what he called a crisis brought on by the Trump administration’s policies.”
Out of concern, King asked senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe whether this was the path forward for their party (click “expand”):
KING: Ed, Cory Booker kept saying repeatedly this is not about Democrat or Republican, this is about right and wrong. Do you think that that message resonated, and why do you think he chose to make this speech now?
O’KEEFE: Well, first of all, he breaks a record that was held by the late Strom Thurmond who had spoken about that long 24 hours and change, he hit 25 hours and change. He breaks a long-standing record. And look, at the same time that Democrats were keeping margins closer in Florida and winning a big race in Wisconsin, this appeared to be an attempt by someone who may run for president again to show that Democratic leaders in Washington at least are putting a little action behind their words, and literally putting their bodies on the line as they try to speak out against President Trump. He made use of a rare senate power. You can hold the control of the floor of the Senate as long as you try to make a point, and he used the stories of constituents from across New Jersey. He earned bipartisan praise for doing so and you’re wondering how did he do it? This is a guy who had done hunger strikes before. He had started dehydrating and fasting on Friday. Didn’t drink much water yesterday, so he didn’t have to run to the bathroom, Gayle —
KING: Alright —
O’KEEFE: — Nate, all ya.
KING: — a lot of people talking about it today.
CBS Mornings Plus brought O’Keefe back, who told Dokoupil and co-host Adriana Diaz that Booker’s strategy was in tandem with the election results in Florida and Wisconsin that were “encouraging” for Democrats.
“[T]his was a way for Washington-based Democrats to show the party we're doing things too. We are going to take advantage of the little bit of power and influence that we have to make the point that President Trump is dangerous...Expect to see more of this from Democrats going forward. And remember, this is somebody who may one day run again for president,” he added in part.
