Kevin McCarthy breaks record for longest House speech, talking for more than 8 hours to obstruct Biden's social-spending bill

• Rep. Kevin McCarthy beat a House record early Friday morning for longest floor speech.
• He surpassed Nancy Pelosi by talking for 8 1/2 hours to obstruct Democratic spending plans.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy broke a record for the longest speech in the US House of Representatives, surpassing eight hours of continuous floor time early Friday morning.

The House minority leader began his rambling address at 8:38 p.m. ET on Thursday, hoping to obstruct Democrats' attempts to advance a huge social-spending package championed by President Joe Biden.

McCarthy ended his speech at 5:11 a.m. Friday — eight hours and 33 minutes later.

He beat a record set by Nancy Pelosi, then minority leader, who spoke for eight hours and seven minutes in February 2018 on immigration policy.

McCarthy was allowed to speak so long by using the so-called magic-minute rule, which grants party leaders unlimited speaking time in certain situations. Unlike the Senate, the House has no filibuster.

Toward the end of the speech, McCarthy joked that "my one minute is almost up," noting that "personally I didn't think I could do that long." He spent a while asking those around him to confirm he had beaten the record.

He succeeded in preventing Democrats from voting Thursday night on Biden's spending plan, the $1.75 trillion package the president calls the Build Back Better bill.

After a little more than three hours of McCarthy's speech, Democrats decided to delay the vote until 8 a.m. Friday, leaving McCarthy to talk for hours into the night to relatively little purpose.

Speaking with Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Democrats derided his speech as "rambling" and "unhinged."