October 23, 2025 4:10 a.m. 

On Wednesday, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley issued a statement after holding the Senate floor for 22 hours, 37 minutes – the third longest in Senate history.

A release from the senator said he wanted to ring alarm bells about what he called, “..the Trump Administration’s authoritarian takeover of the country”.

Merkley said, “Trump’s plan is to replace government ‘of, by and for the people’ with government ‘of, by and for the powerful’.

Merkley said, “This is the position we’re in right now in the United States of America. An authoritarian strongman is pushing for complete control of America thanks to a rubber-stamp Congress, a Supreme Court that’s delivering more and more power to the Executive, and an Executive that has a well-planned strategy to trample our democratic institutions, thanks for Project 2025”.

Merkley said, “Americans are standing up because the President is not a king. Americans are standing up because laws are not suggestions. Americans are standing up because following the Constitution is not optional”.

Merkley’s statement concluded by saying, “After over 22 hours on the floor, my message is exactly the same as it was when I started: We need to stand strong together to ring the alarm bells that “Trump’s authoritarianism is here now”.

Archived livestreams of Merkley’s speech are available on his YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@SenatorJeffMerkleyYT.