U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley held the Senate floor this week with a historically long speech to protest President Donald Trump – and what he sees as the administration’s threats to democracy.

Around 5 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday, Merkley said that authoritarianism is “here right now.” With that, he ended a speech that lasted over 22 hours.

Oregon’s junior senator held the floor for all that time to criticize the president’s policies and to urge Republicans to negotiate on ending the government shutdown.

Senator Merkley spoke with OPB “All Things Considered” host Geoff Norcross about what this moment means for the country.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Geoff Norcross: We’ll get to the “how” in a second, but let’s get the “why” out of the way first. Why did you do this? What were you hoping to accomplish?

Sen. Jeff Merkley: I did this to ring the alarm bells about the authoritarian takeover. What people need to understand is countries don’t lose their democracies because men with guns storm the Capitol in this modern age. It happens primarily because you have a president who starts to erode the checks and balances, and the separation of power.

We have all three features of an authoritarian government: a rubber stamp Congress, a Supreme Court handing more power to the president and an authoritarian president.

Norcross: The federal government is also operating under a shutdown right now. Do you think you moved the ball at all on ending that shutdown?

Merkley: I don’t think I did move the ball on that, and here’s why. The president has instructed the leader of the House and Senate not to engage in negotiations over the shutdown, and the president’s leaving for a week. The very fact that I can say the president instructed them not to negotiate is my point: that we are in a strongman state. That is not the vision for our country.

The design of our country, the first article of the Constitution, is that the government programs are designed — in terms of what programs, and how they operate and how they’re funded — by Congress, not by the president.

Norcross: Let’s get to the “how” — how do you even stand and speak for 22 hours? And yes, I guess I am asking about bathroom breaks here.

Merkley: Oh my goodness, it was hard. The reason that I took this tactic is because in my town halls this year, people were saying, “Well, we think, we assume you’re doing what you can. But isn’t there anything else you can do to draw attention to the fact that we’re losing our democracy?”

And I thought, I got to try something different to draw attention to what’s unfolding. On Monday morning, after I ate breakfast, that was the last water, food that I had until I took the floor Tuesday evening. So basically two days of dehydration and fasting. And I don’t recommend this, I think any doctors listening will say this is a very unhealthy thing to do.

Norcross: Have you recovered?

Merkley: I feel like I have! Afterwards I had a slice of pizza and a couple bottles of Gatorade, went home and slept 11 hours — I feel pretty good today.

Norcross: Senator, where do you get the inspiration to give long speeches like this?

Merkley: Well you know, growing up I always heard about folks who had taken to the Senate floor on occasions where they felt particularly concerned about the direction of our country. I’d always heard about how [former Oregon Senator] Wayne Morse said, given what I think was the 2nd longest speech.

It just so happens that I’m on the list of the longest speeches now. He is #4, and I’m #3.

Norcross: You actually have a history of this kind of long talking. In 2017, you spoke for over 15 hours to protest the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. Why do you employ this tactic?

Merkley: Well on that occasion, we were seeing for the first time in American history that a Supreme Court seat had been stolen from one president, and delivered to the next. I was pleading with the leadership of both sides. Several proposals had been put forward to avoid that outcome because there was no way to fix it. It was going to undermine the credibility of the Supreme Court. And it has.

Because when you see how decisions are made and there’s 6-5 decisions, you go, ‘Yeah, a 6-5 decision and a Supreme Court seat was stolen from President Obama.’ It was the first time in U.S. history the Senate refused to debate or vote on the nominee. That was a moment that I felt [that] this is a major damage to our constitutional system.

Now, again, we’re at another moment where there’s a major assault. This one’s even worse — and together we have to stop it. Thanks so much to the 7 million people who turned out for the No Kings demonstration, the largest in U.S. history — folks who are understanding that we’re in trouble and they wanted to make their voices heard. We’re going to need [those] grassroots voices, and we’re going to need the voices in the Senate and the House.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/23/oregon-senator-merkley-historical-long-speech-senate-floor-protest-trump/