At 4:53 a.m. on Thursday, Hakeem Jeffries took his place at the lectern on the House floor, bound by no time limit, and began reading letters from constituents in Republican districts who have expressed fear of President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill becoming law.
“People will die. Tens of thousands, perhaps year after year after year, as a result of the Republican assault on the healthcare of the American people,” the House Minority Leader said. “I’m sad. I never thought I would be on the House floor saying this is a crime scene.”
Eight hours and thirty-three minutes later, Jeffries broke the record for the longest continuous speech in House history, using his unlimited speaking privileges under the House’s “magic minute” rule for party leaders to delay a final vote on Republicans’ signature legislation that would enact Trump’s domestic agenda. House Republicans were on track to pass the legislation on Thursday after Speaker Mike Johnson and the President worked overnight to persuade skeptical GOP holdouts to drop their opposition to the bill.
Jeffries’ speech was a last ditch attempt for Democrats to frame Trump’s legislation in the starkest terms for the public ahead of Thursday’s expected vote, potentially previewing the Democrats’ message going into the 2026 midterms. “This is not a ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’” he said. “It is one big, ugly betrayal of working-class Americans.”
Read more: House Republicans Set To Vote on Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’
The measure would broadly fund many of Trump’s biggest campaign promises: extending his 2017 tax cuts that critics say confer their greatest benefits on the wealthy; eliminating taxes on tips and overtime; and providing roughly $170 billion for immigration and border-related operations. To offset some of those costs, the bill also includes deep spending cuts to Medicaid and nutrition assistance, which the Trump Administration has tried to sell to the public by arguing that many of the people who would lose health insurance under the measure are undocumented immigrants. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the bill would increase the deficit by $3.4 trillion and leave about 12 million people without insurance by 2034.
Jeffries’ speech surpassed the previous record of eight hours and 32 minutes set in 2021 by then-Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who similarly used the floor to delay a vote on a $2 trillion Democratic bill to strengthen the social safety net and fight climate change. It also comes roughly three months after Democratic Senator Cory Booker broke an upper chamber record by speaking for more than 25 hours in a sharp rebuke of the Trump Administration, the most viral public challenge to Trump’s agenda since his return to the White House.
For Democrats, the speech served as a rallying cry against Trump’s legislation and as a broader indictment of his second-term priorities and the Republican majority’s alignment with them. Jeffries laced his speech with personal anecdotes and stories from the public: people who rely on Medicaid, small business owners facing higher premiums, and the father of three Marines—an undocumented landscaper—beaten by Border Patrol agents in California.
Read more: The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Pour Billions Into ICE’s Budget
“How can you prepare to celebrate legislation that will undermine the quality of life of everyday Americans?” Jeffries said to House Republicans who were preparing to vote in favor of the bill.
“Shame on this institution if this bill passes. We are better than this, America,” Jeffries said in his closing, as Democrats in the chamber behind him chanted in unison: “shame, shame, shame.” As Jeffries finished at 1:39 p.m., after speaking for eight hours and forty-four minutes, Democrats cheered and chanted his name.
Democrats would need four Republicans to break ranks in order to sink the legislation, which by Thursday afternoon did not appear likely. Still, some Democrats urged their supporters to call their Republican representatives and urge them to vote against Trump’s bill. “Keep making calls!” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X in all-caps. “Hit the phones to save Medicaid!”
Read more: More Than 70 Million Americans Are on Medicaid. Here’s What to Know About the Program
Meanwhile, Republicans mostly rolled their eyes at the last-minute action by Democrats. “What we just heard can be defined in one word—a bunch of hogwash is what we heard for 8 hours on that side of the building,” Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri said on the House floor immediately after the speech concluded. “The eight hours of hogwash that we just heard will not change the outcome that you will see very shortly when we deliver historic tax relief for working families, small business owners and farmers.”
“Keep going, Hakeem—the longer you speak, the more unified Republicans become,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana posted earlier on X. “The Big Beautiful Bill WILL be on President Trump’s desk July 4th.”
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