Trump speech: President accused of 'stoking fear' over border immigration as he demands wall funding to end 'crisis'
Mr Trump steers clear of declaring national emergency over border but Republicans and Democrats are no closer to deal to end shutdown
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has told the American people that the US is facing a “humanitarian and security crisis” on its southern border during his first-ever prime time address from the Oval Office on Tuesday, as a nineteenth day of partial government shutdown loomed.
Mr Trump urged congressional Democrats to fund his long-promised border wall in the sombre televised address that was heavy with dark immigration rhetoric, which caused Democrats to accuse the president of “stoking fear”.
“How much more American blood must be shed before Congress does its job?” he said, recounting gruesome details of murders he said were committed by illegal immigrants.
But after days of hinting he might use presidential powers to declare an emergency as a first step toward directing money for the wall without congressional approval, Mr Trump said he would continue seeking a solution to the impasse with Congress.
Democrats have so far flat out rejected Mr Trump’s demand for $5.6bn (£4.4bn) to build the wall, and the budgetary showdown over that money has left 800,000 public sector staff either furloughed or working without pay until the issue is resolved.
All major US television networks aired Mr Trump’s speech, prompting Democrats, who say a wall would be expensive, inefficient and immoral, to seek equal time in an address directly after the president.
They used it to accuse the president of implementing fear tactics and spreading misinformation about the situation along the border.
“The president has chosen fear. We want to start with the facts,” said Nancy Pelosi, Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives.
“The fact is, President Trump has chosen to hold hostage critical services for the health, safety and well-being of the American people and withhold the paychecks of 800,000 innocent workers across the nation, many of them veterans,” she said.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday found that 51 per cent of adults mainly blamed Mr Trump for the shutdown, up four percentage points from late December, while 32 per cent blamed congressional Democrats and seven per cent faulted Republicans in Congress
Mr Trump has invited the congressional leadership from both parties to another meeting at the White House on Wednesday afternoon to try and break the deadlock. Mr Trump then travels to the border on Thursday.
To see how events unfolded, follow our liveblog below
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Reuters contributed to this report
Extended shutdown could lead to evictions for low-income families
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is scrambling to help tenants who rely on rental assistance programmes to keep a roof over their head, asking landlords not to initiate evictions for tenants who rely on HUD funding including Section 8 vouchers and project-based rental assistance.
The Washington Post reports that HUD officials did not realize that the rental assistance funding would dry up on 1 January, leading to an effort to find emergency funds to keep people in their homes. That includes tapping into reserve founds and "scouring" for cash, according to that newspaper.
Rougly 95 per cent of the employees at the department have been furloughed since the partial government shutdown began just under three weeks ago.
In addition to the lapse in funding for vouchers and rental assistance, basic HUD functions like building inspections have also been halted.
TSA agents are calling out sick from work, and things are not pretty at America's airports
While the TSA doesn't generally release specific data on the number of agents who call out sick on any given day, there is some indication that federal workers are not showing up to work now that their paychecks have been threatened.
That has led to long lines in busy airports like New York City's Laguardia International and Dallas/Fort Worth International.
Meanwhile, the ongoing shutdown has pilots warning that the lapse in federal funding could impact passenger safety — and air traffic control trainings have been halted in an already under-staffed industry.
People are dying in America's national parks during the shutdown
At least three people have died in America's national parks since the shutdown began, with an estimated 80 per cent of the workforce that generally tends to the areas on furlough.
The deaths are notable because the Trump administration decided to keep the parks open but unstaffed during the shutdown, unlike during previous shutdowns when access to the areas was prohibited. Other issues in the parks have also popped up, with piles of rubbish piling up with nobody around to clean up after the visitors.
Top Trump administration officials see pay freeze as hundreds of thousands of government employees go without paychecks
Vice President Mike Pence, cabinet members, and other top level officials were scheduled to receive $10,000 raises, but the ongoing shutdown has forced a freeze in those efforts.
Workers across the federal government are waiting to see if they will even receive their paychecks, however, after the funding for part of the government lapsed nearly three weeks ago.
Is Trump's safety imperiled by the shutdown?
While it is unlikely that the US Secret Service would allow their guard down in significant enough of a way that harm could come to the president, the agents in charge of keeping Mr Trump safe are only human.
And that means they could find themselves distracted should they be among those who do not receive checks as a part of the ongoing government shutdown, a former agent says.
"This is an incredibly stressful job that requires your full attention, and if you are standing there thinking about your mortgage, or your credit card bills, or the fact that you are burning through your savings, you are distracted, you not able to give 100 percent,” Donald Mihalek, a 20-year Secret Service agent whose retirement is pending because of the shutdown, has told The New York Times.
Trump has lunch with TV hosts before his prime-time address Tuesday
From the Associated Press: President Donald Trump hosted cable and broadcast television news representatives at an off-the-record lunch hours before he’s set to deliver a prime-time speech outlining what he sees as a “crisis” on the southern border.
Top news personalities including CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos attended the Tuesday lunch, which lasted about an hour and 20 minutes.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway says the group had a “robust exchange” and “questions were asked and answered.”
Baier said on air that attendees agreed to quote only one line from the president: “It was wonderful having lunch with you today.”
But he said that the White House believes the wall is a winning issue for Trump, whose refusal to sign a budget without billions for the border has forced a partial government shutdown.
The TSA union is warning of massive security risks as a result of the shutdown
The head of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) — which is the largest federal union and represents some 44,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents — says that the shutdown is having major impacts on federal employees.
“Some of [my members] have already quit and many are considering quitting the federal workforce because of this shutdown,” AFGE TSA Council President Hydrick Thomas said in a statement.
The statement continued: “The loss of officers, while we’re already shorthanded, will create a massive security risk for American travelers since we don’t have enough trainees in the pipeline or the ability to process new hires. Our TSOs already do an amazing job without the proper staffing levels, but if this keeps up there are problems that will arise – least of which would be increased wait times for travelers".
Trump, to Democrats, is acting like a 'terrorist' in the shutdown showdown
It's not just progressive darling and freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who thinks the president is treating the hundreds of thousands of federal workers as a tool to forcibly extract concessions from his opponents — the Democratic establishment has come along to that way of thinking, too.
The Associated Press reports:
The second ranking House Democrat is blaming President Donald Trump for the partial government shutdown and has said that Mr Trump is holding the government “hostage.” That was Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer, who said Tuesday that “in another context, we would call that an act of kidnapping or terrorism".
Mr Hoyer said it would be akin to an imposition of martial law if Trump declares a national emergency in order to unilaterally build a Southwest border wall. He said Mr Trump doesn’t have that authority and doing that “certainly could” be an abuse of power.
Mr Hoyer compared it to other governments “declaring martial law and justifying them in doing whatever they want to do".
Democrats are refusing to give Trump $5.7 billion to build the wall. The impasse has led to a partial government shutdown, now in its third week
National Parks are closing because, without staff, people are destroying things
The sign at the entrance to Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park in California was among those national parks that had been left open with a skeleton crew or volunteer staff, allowing visitors to experience the wonder of the desert park even as the government shutdown rumbles on.
But, after trees were destroyed by some visitors, and new roads being created by motorists in the desert, the park will now be closed, according to a national park spokesman.
“While the vast majority of those who visit Joshua Tree do so in a responsible manner, there have been incidents of new roads being created by motorists and the destruction of Joshua trees in recent days that have precipitated the closure,” spokesman George Land said in a news release.
Trump will not be the only politician speaking tonight
Ms Pelosi, Mr Schumer, and other Democratic leaders outside of the White House after a recent meeting with the president regarding the government shutdown
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will give a Democratic reubttal to President Donald Trump's prime-time address from the Oval Office this evening , where he will discuss his proposal to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
Ms Pelosi and Mr Schumer have so far led a unified Democratic front against Mr Trump's request for $5.7bn in funding for a border wall, which Mr Trump has dug in on to result in the partial government shutdown.
Their response will come after Mr Trump's planned remarks at 9pm EST.
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