Booker called filibuster an ‘abuse of power’ years before setting Senate speech record
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., condemned the Senate filibuster as an “abuse of power” in 2022, years before his party praised him for launching the “longest filibuster in U.S. Senate history” on Tuesday. Booker set the record for longest Senate floor speech at 25 hours and 5 minutes after starting to speak at 7 p.m. on Monday. The filibuster has been a deeply controversial tool for the Senate in recent years, with many Democrats condemning the practice during President Joe Biden’s administration as Republicans used it to foil his agenda. “The filibuster has been abused to stop reforms supported by the vast majority of Americans—from background checks to protecting the right to vote. We must stop this abuse of power,” Booker wrote on X in January 2022. Booker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. DEM SENATOR SAYS PARTY BRAND IS ‘REALLY PROBLEMATIC’ AND LED TO THE LOSS OF TRUST OF WORKING-CLASS VOTERS Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who was the lone Democrat to oppose abolishing the filibuster during Biden’s administration, has poked fun at Democrats who criticized her at the time. DEM SENATOR BEHIND SOCIAL MEDIA FAIL RESPONDS TO ELON MUSK’S OFFER “Maybe it isn’t an old Jim Crow relic, after all,” she quipped about Booker’s performance on Tuesday, referencing President Barack Obama’s description of the filibuster. Sinema specifically called out Rep. Pramila Jayapal. D-Wash., who condemned the “Jim Crow filibuster” just last year. Jayapal changed her tune when Republicans were trying to pass a continuing resolution in March, urging Democrats in the Senate, “Don’t betray working families. Don’t give Trump and Elon Musk a blank check. Don’t be complicit in the slashing of government programs. Vote NO on cloture and NO on final passage of Republicans’ bad bill.” WHO IS JAMES BOASBERG, THE US JUDGE AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP’S DEPORTATION EFFORTS? Cloture is the Senate term for ending a filibuster, causing Sinema to chime in, “Just surprised to see support for the ‘Jim Crow filibuster’ here,” she wrote. Booker himself has flipped on the issue multiple times. He gave a firm defense of the filibuster in 2019 before his call to remove it in 2022. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP He said at the time that Democrats “should not be doing anything to mess with the strength of the filibuster.” “I will personally resist efforts to get rid of it,” he said.
Dem AGs take Trump-Kennedy HHS to court over cuts to COVID-era grants
More than 20 Democratic attorneys general are joining forces to take Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to court to halt spending cuts he has authorized within the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department in alignment with President Donald Trump’s goal of cutting waste and downsizing the federal government. “I cannot overstate how reckless and illegal these cuts are,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement Tuesday. The cuts, which were announced last week and began Tuesday, include firing some 10,000 federal health employees across its major agencies – roughly 20% of its workforce – as well as slashing billions of dollars in public health grants. HHS DOWNSIZING BEGINS AMID RFK JR. ‘MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN’ PUSH: ‘WIN-WIN FOR TAXPAYERS’ Those public health grants, amounting to $12 billion, were earmarked for states during the COVID-19 pandemic for testing and vaccinations. The HHS justified the cuts because the “COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.” HHS Director of Communications Andrew Nixon said in a media statement last week that “HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.“ However, Mayes, alongside 23 other Democratic state attorneys general, argue the cuts will impact the health of their states. “By slashing these grants, the Trump administration has launched an all-out attack on Arizona’s public health system—harming the entire state, but hitting rural communities the hardest. These cuts target the very places that rely most on this critical funding,” Mayes said. “Eliminating it would devastate our already precarious system and cost jobs across Arizona, from doctors to tribal health workers. I will fight this every step of the way.” RFK JR BACKS WV PUSH FOR SNAP WAIVERS, WORK MANDATES UNDER ‘MAHA’ The lawsuit, filed in Rhode Island, claims the “unlawful withholding of funds has already caused substantial confusion and will result in immediate and devastating harm” to the residents of 23 states and the District of Columbia. Attorneys general from Rhode Island, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., are listed as plaintiffs. The department has been preparing to make major cuts in recent weeks across its health agencies, especially pertaining to administrative costs and DEI-related spending. HOSPITALS WARNED THEY MUST PROTECT CHILDREN FROM CHEMICAL AND SURGICAL MUTILATION: HHS AGENCY MEMO On Tuesday, federal health employees began receiving notices of termination. The Associated Press also reported there were lines wrapped around the HHS building of employees trying to find out whether they still had a job. According to the HHS, the layoffs “will save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year” and “streamline” functions of the department while ensuring that essential services like Medicare and Medicaid continue without disruption. “We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” the HHS secretary said in a statement. “This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
Judge blocks Trump admin from firing federal probationary workers
A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from firing federal probationary workers in 19 states and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. U.S. District Court Judge James Bredar’s order directs 18 federal agencies to “undo” the “purported terminations” of thousands of probationary federal workers before Tuesday, April 8th, though the order only applies to states whose attorneys general brought the case. The states impacted by Wednesday’s ruling include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia. Bredar’s order is only the latest move by federal courts to hamper Trump’s agenda, though it falls short of the nationwide injunctions used in other instances. SCOOP: TOP REPUBLICAN CHUCK GRASSLEY SETS PROMPT HEARING ON JUDGES BLOCKING TRUMP Since Trump entered office, he has faced a slew of nationwide injunctions to halt actions of his administration. So far in his new term, the courts have hit him with roughly 15 wide-ranging orders, more than former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden received during their entire tenures. GOP SENATOR SAYS DR OZ IGNORED HIS QUESTIONS ON TRANSGENDER ISSUES, ABORTION Some of those who have ordered the Trump administration to halt certain actions are U.S. District Judges James Boasberg, Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, William Alsup, Deborah Boardman, John Coughenour, Paul A. Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, Angel Kelley, Brendan A. Hurson, Royce Lamberth, Joseph Laplante, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich condemned the wave of injunctions as a “judicial coup d’etat” during testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday. The former lawmaker highlighted that the vast majority of judges filing injunctions or restraining orders against Trump’s executive actions have been appointed by Democrats. ‘WOEFULLY INSUFFICIENT’: US JUDGE REAMS TRUMP ADMIN FOR DAYS-LATE DEPORTATION INFO “If you look at the recent reports from various polling firms, clearly a majority of Americans believe that no single district judge should be able to issue a nationwide injunction,” Gingrich responded. “Look, my judgment is as a historian. This is clearly a judicial coup d’etat. You don’t have this many different judges issue this many different nationwide injunctions – all of them coming from the same ideological and political background – and just assume it’s all random efforts of justice,” he continued. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “This is a clear effort to stop the scale of change that President Trump represents,” he added. Fox News’ Julia Johnson contributed to this report
Trump, Senate GOP budget leaders huddle at White House on reconciliation bill
President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Budget Committee Republicans are meeting at the White House on Wednesday morning as discussions on how to extend the 2017 tax cuts continue and a key budget process to advance Trump’s agenda hangs in the balance. Notably, the meeting is taking place ahead of a Trump event in the Rose Garden, during which the president will discuss his new tariffs. The Wednesday White House meeting is meant to be less of a debate on how to proceed and more of a final check-in to make sure all parties are on the same page, a source familiar told Fox News Digital. DISTRICT JUDGES’ ORDERS BLOCKING TRUMP AGENDA FACE HEARING IN TOP SENATE COMMITTEE Trump and Senate Republicans’ discussion is just the latest of several meetings on both the House and Senate sides, hammering out details on how to maneuver a House-passed budget reconciliation bill through the upper chamber. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was spotted leaving at least one of the congressional meetings on Wednesday and has been a fixture on Capitol Hill amid the reconciliation debate. Initially, there was stark disagreement between GOP leaders in the House and Senate over how to organize a reconciliation bill, which is a key tool for the Trump administration and Republican majorities, because it lowers the vote threshold in the Senate, bypassing the legislative filibuster. DEMS MUM ON TRUMP’S COURT FIGHTS DESPITE TRYING TO LIMIT BIDEN-BLOCKING JUDGES Senate Republicans largely preferred splitting the priorities of the Trump administration into two reconciliation bills, the first of which would address the southern border’s urgent needs and a later bill would extend Trump’s hallmark 2017 tax cuts. But House Republicans, who have less space for dissent with their slim majority, made it clear they would only accept one reconciliation bill that included border funding and tax cut extensions. The House and Senate both passed separate resolutions, but Trump has voiced his support for one bill on multiple occasions and Senate Republicans themselves described their resolution as a backup plan to the House’s. FORMER DESANTIS OFFICIAL DEFEATS DEM FOR MATT GAETZ’S HOUSE SEAT Now, the Senate is charged with taking up the House’s bill, including border and tax cuts, in order to complete the budget reconciliation process for Trump. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Fox News he would be at the 11 a.m. meeting. He said he planned to bring up the debt limit, which will need to be extended soon. In particular, he wants to discuss raising the debt limit in the budget reconciliation resolution. WHITE HOUSE WARNS OF TRUMP VETO IF TIM KAINE ‘STUNT’ VOTE TO CANCEL TARIFFS PASSES SENATE According to the Republican, Trump hasn’t been highly communicative to Republicans about his position on the debt limit’s inclusion in this particular bill. But Kennedy believes they should raise the debt limit via reconciliation to ensure Republicans don’t need to negotiate with Democrats to avert default down the line.
Daughter of late Dem congressman launches campaign for father’s seat: ‘Building something powerful’
The daughter of the late Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., will run for her father’s seat in the upcoming special election for the solidly Democrat-leaning district. Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva announced her campaign for Arizona’s Seventh Congressional District on Monday, making good on the promise to make her decision clear after her father’s funeral. She noted in her launch video posted to X that she is the daughter of “a man who spent his life fighting for justice, equity, and dignity for the most vulnerable communities.” DEMOCRATIC REP. RAUL GRIJALVA DEAD AT 77 “From working as a vaquero to serving the people in the halls of Congress in a single generation. That’s the promise of this country, and that’s the legacy that’s helped shape me,” she added. “This is the America that I want to raise my three beautiful children in. But today, that idea of America is under a serious threat,” the Democrat added, saying that President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and a “gang of billionaires” are taking aim at the “most sacred rights” in the country. Grijalva quickly reached the signature threshold necessary to make the Democratic primary ballot within the day. The primary election is on July 15, and the general election is on Sept. 23. TRUMP NOMINATES FORMER ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR US AMBASSADOR TO SERBIA “In less than five hours since launching our campaign, we have collected enough signatures to be on the ballot,” she said in a video shortly following her launch. For Democrats, a minimum of 798 verified signatures is required to make the ballot in the race and a maximum of 31,906 signatures, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The Democratic congressman died last month after a battle with lung cancer. Grijalva will be facing off against former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, who recently touted over $200,000 in campaign coffers. “WOW!!! We just hit $200,000 raised since we launched on Monday. I’m BLOWN AWAY by the support—and ready to get to work. We’re building something powerful in Arizona. Let’s keep it going!!!!!!!” Hernandez posted last week. BORDER COMMUNITY REVEALS WHAT TRUMP ADMIN STILL NEEDS TO ACCOMPLISH AS CRISIS CALMS DOWN: ‘UNDUE BURDENS’ Secretary of State Adrian Fontes was mulling a bid for the seat, but decided against it and expressed plans to run for re-election instead. “I will continue to defend America as Arizona’s Secretary of State,” Fontes said in a statement on March 26. The district itself spans much of the southern border of the Grand Canyon State.
Reporter’s Notebook: April Fools’ on Capitol Hill
These aren’t April Fools’ pranks. Yes, director Oliver Stone actually testified at a House hearing on the JFK assassination on April Fools’ Day this year. It was the first congressional hearing on President John F. Kennedy’s death since 1992. Stone then held a press availability. BOOKER CONCLUDES RECORD 25-HOUR SPEECH AGAINST TRUMP, MUSK MARKING THE LONGEST EVER ON THE SENATE FLOOR Not on the grassy knoll. But in a corridor outside the hearing room. Surely this next item is an April Fools’ prank. Yes, House Republicans scheduled a hearing on what they believe is overreach by federal judges in their rulings against the Trump administration. And then a small group of Republicans blocked the House from even debating a GOP bill to rein in those judges. The reason? A dispute over whether the House should allow members who are pregnant or are new moms to vote remotely. ANNA PAULINA LUNA FORCES HOUSE LEADERSHIP’S HAND ON PROXY VOTING AS GOP WAR ESCALATES House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., then sent the House home for the week Tuesday afternoon – after less than two days of work. You can’t make this stuff up. Or what about Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., giving a speech to rail against the Trump administration on the Senate floor which began at 7 p.m. ET on March 31 – but didn’t conclude until after 8 p.m. ET on April 1? In the process, Booker broke the Senate record for the longest speech in Senate history: 25 hours and five minutes. Booker bested the old mark of 24 hours and 18 minutes set by the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., in 1957 over a civil rights bill. But the hardest thing to believe about Booker’s marathon speech? A reporter asked the New Jersey Democrat if he wore a catheter or a diaper to get through the 25-hour stretch. April Fool? “I don’t want my doctor to get mad at me, but I spent time dehydrating myself beforehand so I did not have to go to the bathroom,” said Booker. “My strategy was to stop eating. I think I stopped eating on Friday. And then to stop drinking the night before I started on Monday.” Now, the greatest April Fools’ joke of all? Despite Booker’s protracted oratory, one can argue that he wasn’t “filibustering.” “Filibustering” in the Senate is in the eye of the beholder. Or the mouth of the senator. The Senate features unlimited debate. And the act of “filibustering” carries a negative connotation. Opponents may pejoratively deride the other side as “filibustering” their bill or a nomination. But a senator might claim they’re not filibustering. They’re simply using a Senate prerogative. But it’s an issue of debate whether Booker was actually “holding something up.” That’s the most defining characteristic of a filibuster. A senator can derail or delay Senate business. On the one hand, the Senate had no votes officially locked in for Tuesday. The Senate voted (ironically) to break a filibuster on the nomination of Matthew Whitaker to serve as ambassador to NATO at 7 p.m. ET Monday. That’s when Booker began his speech. By rule, the Senate can take up to 30 hours after cracking a filibuster before the confirmation vote takes place. It was presumed that the Senate would vote at some point on Tuesday to confirm Whitaker. Whitaker’s nomination wasn’t the most controversial thing before the Senate. But if senators consumed all the time afforded them after vaulting the filibuster, the Senate would automatically vote to confirm Whitaker at 1 a.m. ET Wednesday. That’s 30 hours after clearing the filibuster. So, it can be argued that Booker had a window under which to operate – which might make his address just a really long speech – and not a filibuster. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., hoped to force a vote on a resolution to kneecap President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada on Tuesday. It would end the president’s emergency declaration to justify the tariffs. But that roll call vote wasn’t set either. So that means Booker wasn’t necessarily filibustering. WHITE HOUSE WARNS OF TRUMP VEOT IF TIM KAINE ‘STUNT’ VOTE TO CANCEL TARIFFS PASSES SENATE Hollywood and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” imbued the public consciousness with the idea that a lengthy speech is automatically a filibuster. And often very dramatic. But in the Senate, most filibusters are silent. “Filibustering” is frequently the threat that senators will oppose something. Or, at the very least, oppose something so that the majority leader must jump through procedural hurdles to clear a filibuster. That’s what the Senate executed Monday night with a procedural vote to end the filibuster on the Whitaker nomination. So Booker’s stem-winder may have just been a slight delay. But not a filibuster in the most conventional sense. The Senate confirmed Whitaker Tuesday night after Booker concluded. But it’s also worth noting that Booker did not speak consecutively for 25-plus hours. So, was this truly a record-breaking speech? Yes, but a more accurate way to characterize his feat is that Booker established a new record for holding the Senate floor the longest. During his speech, Booker would periodically “yield for a question” to a colleague while “maintaining” his right to the floor. Booker would speak for a while. And when his voice grew raspy, he’d yield to a host of Democrats: Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Tina Smith, D-Minn., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. They’d each speak for 10 or 15 minutes. And then punctuate the end of their speech with an interrogative – sending things back over to Booker. This is “legal” in the Senate. Booker still had control of the floor so long as he remained standing. But it gave him a timeout to relax and recharge for a few moments. Kind of like calling in a relief pitcher from the bullpen for an inning or two. In track and field, officials sometimes dot a record-breaking sprint with an asterisk – noting that the mark was “wind
Conditions worsen for Myanmar earthquake survivors
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Frustration rise among Myanmar’s earthquake survivors as they face shortages of clean water, food, medicine and shelter.
These activists are pushing for an ICC war crimes case against Biden
NewsFeed Lawyers from a US activist group are pushing for the International Criminal Court to take up a case against former President Joe Biden and his administration for war crimes against Palestinians. Sarah Leah Whitson says the court won’t survive if it fails to prosecute US officials for atrocities in Gaza. Here’s why. Published On 2 Apr 20252 Apr 2025 Adblock test (Why?)
Wrongful deportation of man to El Salvador “threat to everybody”
Al Sharpton examines Trump’s wrongful deportation of a Maryland man and asks how this could happen in the US. Al Sharpton, a civil rights & social justice activist, analyses the Trump administration’s wrongful deportation of a Maryland man to El Salvador, and asks how this can happen in the United States. Adblock test (Why?)
Why did Tejashwi Yadav say about father Lalu Prasad Yadav, ‘Kaleja wale aadmi hain…’?
“Kaleja wale aadmi hain”, said RJD leader and former Bihar deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav about his father Lalu Prasad Yadav. But why?