Trump national address 鈥榓imed at stoking fear鈥
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US President Donald Trump urged congressional Democrats to fund his long-promised border wall in a somber televised address that was heavy with dark immigration rhetoric but offered little in the way of concessions or new ideas to break the standoff that has left large parts of the government shuttered for 19 days.
Speaking to the nation from the Oval Office for the first time, Trump argued Tuesday night that the wall was needed to resolve a security and humanitarian 鈥渃risis,鈥 blaming illegal immigration for what he said was a scourge of drugs and violence in the US and asking: 鈥淗ow much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?鈥
Democrats in response accused Trump of appealing to 鈥渇ear, not facts鈥 and manufacturing a border crisis for political gain.
Using the formal trappings of the White House, Trump hoped to gain the upper hand in the standoff over his demand for US$5.7 billion to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. He plans a visit to the border today as he continues to pitch what was a signature promise of his 2016 presidential campaign.
He addressed the nation as the shutdown stretched through its third week, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers going without pay and some congressional Republicans growing increasingly jittery about the spreading impact of the impasse.
He claimed the standoff could be resolved in 鈥45 minutes鈥 if Democrats would just negotiate, but previous meetings have failed. For now, Trump sees this as winning politics. TV networks had been reticent about providing him airtime to make what some feared would be a purely political speech. And that concern was heightened by the decision on Tuesday by Trump鈥檚 re-election campaign to send out fundraising e-mails and text messages to supporters trying to raise money off the speech. Their goal: a half-million dollars in a day.
鈥淚 just addressed the nation on Border Security. Now need you to stand with me,鈥 read one message sent out.
In their own televised remarks, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of misrepresenting the situation on the border as they urged him to reopen closed government departments and turn loose paychecks for hundreds of thousands of workers.
Negotiations on wall funding could proceed in the meantime, they said.
Schumer said Trump 鈥渏ust used the backdrop of the Oval Office to manufacture a crisis, stoke fear and divert attention from the turmoil in his administration.鈥
In his address, Trump ticked off a string of statistics and claims to make his case that there is a crisis at the border, but many of his statements were misleading, such as saying the new trade deal with Mexico would pay for the wall, or suggesting through gruesome examples that immigrants are more likely to commit crime.
Trump, who has long railed against illegal immigration at the border, has recently seized on humanitarian concerns to argue there is a broader crisis that can only be solved with a wall. But critics say the security risks are overblown and the administration is at least partly to blame for the humanitarian situation.
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