If you thought you’d seen theatrics in the United States Senate before, buckle up. Cory Booker, ever the drama king (queen?) from New Jersey, turned what should have been a routine discussion over a police funding bill into a one-man Broadway show, complete with finger-pointing at his own party and impassioned diatribes about the imminent descent of the country into authoritarian chaos. That’s right, one of the Senate’s most reliably emotional voices managed to deliver another performance that all but confirmed the absence of meaningful leadership and unity among Democrats.
Booker’s tirade began with a familiar refrain: warnings of the country supposedly sliding toward authoritarianism under Republican influence, paired with a blistering critique of his Democratic colleagues for their lack of resolve.
I know, you’re probably already snoozing at the same old tired talking points being recycled over and over again, but bear with me. According to Booker, if Democrats won’t muster the backbone to push back, maybe they deserve to lose the next round of elections. It’s a telling bit of self-awareness, one that’s been missing from the left ever since its “blue wave” fizzled spectacularly.
“The Democratic Party needs a wake-up call,” Booker thundered early in his remarks, accusing universities, businesses, and law firms of “bending the knee” to President Donald Trump. His tone vacillated between self-righteous indignation and theatrical fury as he painted a dystopian portrait of America under Trump, claiming that free speech was being crushed and that “secret police are running around this country picking people up off the streets.”
Booker also pushed the bogus narrative that CBS is censoring Stephen Colbert because he criticized Trump.
“I see businesses taking late night talk show hosts off the air because they dare to insult a president,” he said, as if CBS isn’t losing money on "The Late Show” and Colbert hasn’t been rabidly anti-Trump for years.
“What are the very people here elected to defend the Constitution of the United States saying?” he asked rhetorically. “‘Oh, well, today let’s look the other way and pass some resources that won’t go to Connecticut, that won’t go to Illinois, that won’t go to New York, that will go to the states he likes.’ That is complicity with an authoritarian leader who is trashing our Constitution.”
Booker’s alleged frustration with his own party was also a prevalent theme. “It’s time for Democrats to have a backbone. It’s time for us to fight. It’s time for us to draw lines,” he shouted, clearly enraged over what he views as weakness among his colleagues.
Again, this is a party that literally impeached Trump twice over bogus reasons and tried to put him in jail, yet in his view, they’re not fighting? Really?
The spectacle reached a fever pitch when he declared, “Don’t question my integrity, don’t question my motives. I’m standing for Jersey, I am standing for my police officers, I’m standing for the Constitution, and I’m standing for what’s right.”
Yeah, that’s cute. The day Democrats stand for police officers is the day Joe Biden aces a cognitive exam.
Despite the high-minded rhetoric, the speech was long on volume and short on facts. He offered his vague claims about civil liberties violations without evidence, and his assertion that “secret police” are abducting people in the streets was an insult and smear against brave Americans enforcing immigration laws. But that didn’t stop him from escalating further.
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“If you wanna come at me that way,” Booker warned, “you’re gonna have to take it up with me because there’s too much on the line right now in America.” He implored Democrats to unite, declaring, “If we don’t stand as Democrats, we deserve to lose.”
Oh no. What are we gonna do?
His closing crescendo sounded more like a protest chant than a Senate speech. “If we stand with other people, if we tell with a chorus of conviction in America what this president is doing is wrong… dear God, we will win… ‘We shall overcome.’ No, not on my watch. I’m protecting Jersey today. I’m protecting our Constitution today.”
Cory Booker is having a complete MELTDOWN right now. pic.twitter.com/jARQ85nCXk
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 29, 2025
If Democrats actually protected the Constitution, they wouldn’t be Democrats. Booker’s unhinged rant wasn’t some principled stand for civil liberties. It was a desperate grab for relevance dressed up in theatrical outrage. His breathless warnings about “secret police,” his absurd claim that Stephen Colbert is facing censorship, and his recycled talking points about authoritarianism only highlighted the moral and intellectual decay at the heart of his party. This wasn’t bravery; it was a temper tantrum masquerading as a speech.
If this is what passes for leadership in today's Democratic Party, then Booker accidentally said the quiet part out loud: Maybe they really do deserve to lose.
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