President Donald Trump will make his case for funding a wall along the country’s southern border in a live prime-time address from the Oval Office Tuesday night.
The president tweeted that his speech will be about "the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern border.”
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The speech comes 18 days into a partial federal government shutdown. Funding for the wall has led to an impasse in passing a continuing regulation to reopen the government.
>> Government shutdown: Trump to deliver prime time address on border 'crisis'
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-California, will be giving the Democratic response following Trump’s speech.
Pelosi and Schumer released this statement Tuesday:
“The facts are clear: President Trump has the power to stop hurting the country by re-opening the government and ending the Trump Shutdown.
“Democrats and an increasing number of Republicans in Congress have repeatedly urged the President and Leader McConnell to end the Trump Shutdown and re-open the government while Congress debates the President’s expensive and ineffective wall. Unfortunately, President Trump keeps rejecting the bipartisan House-passed bills, which have already received strong bipartisan support in the Senate, to re-open the government. Instead, he is still demanding that American taxpayers pay at least $5.7 billion for his wall, which can’t pass either chamber of Congress and of course Mexico is not paying for.
“Now that the television networks have decided to air the President’s address, which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation, Democrats must immediately be given equal airtime.
“On Day One of the new Congress, the House passed bipartisan legislation that honors our responsibility to protect the American people with funding for smart, effective border security solutions – just not the President’s wasteful and ineffective wall.”
Here is what you need to know about the speech:
What time: 9 p.m. ET
What channel: Every major network will carry the speech live, as will cable news channels.
From where: Trump will deliver the speech from the Oval Office.
Livestream: The major networks and cable channels will also be streaming the speech.
Democrats response: Schumer and Pelosi will be giving the Democratic response immediately following Trump's speech.
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