The Democratic leadership in the House and Senate have demanded “equal air time” in response to President Trump’s prime-time Oval Office address Tuesday about the need for a southern border wall.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Monday that because television networks have decided to air Trump’s address, set for 9 p.m. EST, they too are entitled to air time.
The major broadcast and cable networks all plan to run Trump’s address, during which he is expected to make his case in favor of allocating federal funding to construct a southern border wall — a point of contention with congressional Democrats which has led to an ongoing partial government shutdown.
“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,” Pelosi and Schumer said in the statement.
The two said the president’s demand for $5.7 billion for border security and a border wall stands no chance of passing either chamber of Congress.
A $5.7 billion measure passed when the GOP controlled the House in December. Democrats took over the lower chamber last week.
Here is the full statement from Pelosi and Schumer:
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.
