Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., staged a sit-in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Sunday, taking a ‘moral moment’ to reject President Donald Trump’s agenda as Congress returns to Washington to negotiate the ‘big, beautiful bill.’
On the final day of the two-week congressional recess, Booker and Jeffries discussed their relationship with faith, invited Americans to share their experience of Trump’s first 100 days and sounded off on ‘what’s at stake with Trump’s budget.’ The sit-in’s hours-long livestream had amassed hundreds of thousands of views on X and YouTube.
Instead of church on Sunday, the Democratic leaders opted for a ‘sacred civic space’ outside the Capitol for more than 12 hours. Activists and politicians joined the Democrats throughout the day, including American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.
‘This is how we will stop cuts to Medicaid, this is how we will stop Trump and congressional Republicans’ devastating agenda, this is how we will rise,’ Booker said on X at the end of the sit-in.
Democrats have been warning Americans about Trump’s ambitious budget bill since he was elected in November, claiming his budget cuts will threaten funding for entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. The Trump administration has maintained that no cuts will be made to those services, despite the anticipated $1.5 trillion in spending reductions and extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
As Congress returns to session this week, committees begin mark-ups on the budget framework passed by both the House and Senate before recess, with plans to finalize legislation by Memorial Day.
Trump added pressure to the negotiations on Sunday, posting on Truth Social that it is a crucial week for the budget bill, ‘which will contain Massive Tax Cuts, Strong Border Security Measures, Major Military Advancements, Dramatic Deregulation, Powerful Spending Reforms, and more!’
‘IT MUST BE DONE. We will unleash Economic Prosperity, and accelerate into the Golden Age of America,’ Trump said of his ‘big, beautiful bill.’
However, Democrats have a drastically different depiction of Trump’s vision for the country, and the 12-hour livestream on the Capitol steps covered their laundry list of concerns – everything from Department of Education cuts, Planned Parenthood funding and protecting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
‘This is a moment of moral urgency. We are in this moment where Congress is going to come back tomorrow from a two-week recess, and the Republican leaders on your side of the Capitol are saying that they’re going to force a bill through. They want to get it done during this work period and back over to the Senate to be voted on and put on the president’s desk,’ Booker said to Jeffries.
‘This bill, we believe, presents one of the greatest moral threats to our country that we’ve seen in terms of what it will do to providing food for the hungry, care for the elderly, services for the disabled, health care for the sick,’ he added.
Booker said the goal of the protest was to ‘center the stories of people who will be affected by this bill that will cut Medicaid so savagely and so many other things, to give tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.’
Booker, who celebrated his 56th birthday on Sunday, has been mocked by critics for similar stunts rejecting Trump’s second-term agenda. The New Jersey senator broke the record for the longest-ever speech on the Senate floor last month, speaking out against Trump’s executive orders, tax cuts and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency for 25 hours.
He also joined his Democratic colleagues ahead of Trump’s joint address to Congress earlier this year in a social media campaign with identical scripts describing ‘S— That Ain’t True’ about the Trump administration.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has drawn tens of thousands of supporters to his ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour rallies across the United States, told NBC on Sunday that ‘what Democrats lack right now is a vision for the future,’ as the party struggles to find a consistent message and clear party leader in the aftermath of big November losses.
Booker’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by deadline.