“This is a choice between right and wrong, justice and injustice,” said President Donald J. Trump at his first prime-time oval office address. President Trump has been determined to build a wall on the southern border of the United States of America, and his address to the country makes an open government seem more improbable than before.
At 9:00 pm on Tuesday, President Trump went on for 10 minutes about his steadfast goal to build a wall – a goal that he has promised to enact since his campaign in 2016. However, one major factor that is rattling up Democrats is his new way of gathering the money necessary, which was originally planned to come from Mexico.
“The President of the United States – having failed to get Mexico to pay for his ineffective, unnecessary border wall, and unable to convince the Congress or the American people to foot the bill – has shut down the government,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in his rebuttal to President Trump’s address.
Citizens across America are currently suffering immensely from the shutdown in various ways; Federal workers are approaching their first missed paycheck and lower class families are waiting for their food stamps.
“…But the only solution is for Democrats to pass a spending bill that defends our borders and reopens the government,” said President Trump, blaming the government shutdown solely on the Democratic party.
The president has refused to negotiate any deal that does not include funding for his border wall, going so far as to walk out of a meeting between Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and himself after Pelosi refused to agree to funding for the wall.
After both the president’s address and the Democrat’s rebuttal were aired, many news outlets were quick to make corrections to some of the false facts that were thrown out.
“…a border wall wouldn’t stop all the drugs; in fact, it would only stop a small proportion of heroin from Mexico, according to Trump’s own DEA,” said Aaron Blake, writer for the Washington Post, addressing Trump’s claim on the wall covering all money lost from illegal drugs.
News outlets also pointed out how this prime time address was aired on every major TV network but not one agreed to airing President Obama’s prime-time address regarding immigration in 2014.
“But it’s noteworthy that just a few years ago, the networks were comfortable refusing to air a primetime Barack Obama speech about immigration on the grounds that the topic was “overtly political,” wrote Matthew Yglesias on Vox.
Along with President Trump being granted time on multiple TV networks, people found it unusual that the Democrats had a rebuttal that was also aired. Typically, only a State of the Union is deemed worthy enough for an opposition rebuttal. Since there was so much outrage amid the news of President Trump’s speech airing, many thought that it would only be fair if the opposing side was able to speak.
“Any network that gives President Trump time for his ‘national address’ tomorrow evening on #TheWall is morally obligated to offer equal time to the opposition,” said political scientist Larry Sabato on Twitter just a day before the prime-time oval office address.
https://twitter.com/LarrySabato/status/1082351341043879939
This government shutdown, now stretching into its twentieth day, may go down in history–whether due to its length or the pain it has brought to families.
