Jeff Merkley wraps up marathon speech warning of ‘authoritarian’ rule

Sen. Jeff Merkley yielded the Senate floor after more than 22 hours Wednesday, capping off an overnight protest against the Trump administration.

The Oregon Democrat began speaking at 6:21 p.m. Tuesday, warning that he was doing so to “ring the alarm bells about authoritarian control” and that the county was facing its “most perilous moment” since the Civil War.

He stood down at 5 p.m on Wednesday, vowing to “keep fighting.”

“We all have taken oath to the constitution,” he added, urging Americans to work together to “ring the alarm bells. … The next election is absolutely critical.”

The speech surpassed his previous record of holding the Senate floor for more than 15 hours during the first Trump administration. It also surpassed the marathon speech delivered by fellow Oregonian Wayne Morse in 1953 and is now the fourth longest in the chamber’s history.

Democrats have been under pressure from their base to show that they are not treating the second administration as business as usual — even if some of those steps are largely symbolic. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) set a new record for delivering the longest floor speech in history earlier this year.

Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee and a senior appropriator, yielded to several Democratic senators for questions over the course of his remarks, including Booker, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Whip Dick Durbin. The questions allowed Merkley to take a break from speaking, but he was required to stay standing the entire time in order to maintain control of the chamber proceedings.

“This is a moral moment in America,” Booker said when he joined Merkley on the floor, adding that the Oregon Democrat was showing that “democracy is not a spectator sport.”

During his marathon floor speech, Merkley spoke at length about Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to Portland and the ongoing legal fight around it. Trump’s use of the military has sparked unease from some corners of the Senate Republican Conference, but most GOP lawmakers have backed up Trump’s actions.

Merkley and colleagues who joined him in the Senate chamber also talked about Trump’s attempts to pressure the Justice Department to go after his perceived political enemies, his tariff policies and soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Merkley’s actions come more than 20 days into the government shutdown with no end in sight. Republicans criticized Merkley for keeping Senate staff and Capitol Police working overnight when they are not getting paid because of the funding lapse.

“The Democrats are going to make Capitol Police and Capitol support staff – who they refuse to pay – work all night so they can give speeches patting themselves on the back for shutting down the government and hurting the American people. How ridiculous is that?” Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Senate Republican, posted on X.