Updated: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, rose on the Senate floor at 2:41 p.m. He stood in opposition to Obamacare, he said. And he said he would continue to speak until he could no longer stand.
According to the National Journal, “It’s not a filibuster. But it’s looking like it may be a very, very long speech from the Texas senator who has been the center of attention in D.C.’s budget fight, and the Senate leader in a doomed-to-fail movement to strip funding for Obamacare out of any resolution that Congress passes to fund the government. If Congress fails to come to an agreement, the government will shutdown at the end of September.”
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Ted Cruz said he stood to “make D.C. listen.”
TheBlaze is streaming video and reports the speech as a “talking filibuster.”
Confusing as it sounds, Cruz’s effort won’t actually halt the senate from voting on a budget bill.
“This is not a filibuster,” a Senate Democratic aide said. “Since cloture has been filed, the cloture vote will occur tomorrow no matter how long Senator Cruz speaks. This is not anything tricky, just basic Senate rules.”
The Texas senator will have to stop speaking on Wednesday at around noon.
Click here for the streaming content from TheBlaze.
Senator Cruz’s daughters watch him speak to them.
Update: Senator Cruz is still speaking and he has provided some notable quotes, but our favorite is the time he took to tell his two daughters to tune into C-SPAN2 at 8 p.m. because he needed to read them verses from the Bible and then some of the Dr. Suess classic, “Green Eggs and Ham,” for their bedtime story.
“Daddy’s going to be home soon to read to you in person,” he said.
Cruz’s chief campaign strategist, Jason Johnson, tweeted the touching photo of the senator’s daughters watching him on the TV at home.