Is that all you got from the excerpt? Many speeches are interrupted “for long periods with all the loud sustained cheering”.
Well, actually I read the whole article but I digress. The day after the speech, the reports were endless about "what a long speech it was... longest in over 4 decades" etc. etc. etc. So Hewitt says he "milked his long speech"....even though that comment had nothing to do with the point of the article. Milked it? Speeches get long when there is lots of applause...
So what is your point?