WATCH: Jeffries breaks record for House floor speech, delaying Trump bill vote

The top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives delayed a vote on President Donald Trump’s big tax and spending cuts bill by speaking for more than eight and a half hours Thursday, setting a new record for the chamber’s longest floor speech.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., spoke for 8 hours and 44 minutes, breaking the record set in 2021 by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who spoke for 8 hours and 32 minutes to criticize Democrats’ “Build Back Better” legislation.

Jeffries began speaking at 4:53 a.m. EDT and finished around 1:38 p.m. As House Democratic leader, he can speak as long as he wants during debate on the bill.

“I feel an obligation, Mr. Speaker, to stand on this House floor and take my sweet time,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries called Republicans’ actions in the legislation “a crime scene, going after the health, and the safety, and the well-being of the American people.” Democrats, he said, “want no part of it.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., acknowledged the record in a floor speech shortly after Jeffries finished. He jokingly slammed a large binder on his podium, prompting laughter in the chamber. “Ronald Reagan said one time that no speech should be longer than 20 minutes. Unlike the Democrat leader, I’m going to honor my colleagues’ time and be a little more brief than that.”

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