House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) will deliver a joint response on Tuesday night to President Trump’s prime-time Oval Office address on the border and the partial government shutdown.
Pelosi and Schumer “will deliver a joint Democratic response to the Presidential Address tonight,” Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi, said in a tweet.
Trump announced on Monday that he would address the country about the current standoff over funding for his U.S.-Mexico border wall. Democrats quickly demanded that they receive “equal air time” to respond to the president’s remarks.
{mosads}“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,” Schumer and Pelosi said in a joint statement on Monday night.
Trump’s speech is expected to begin at 9 p.m. CBS said in a statement to The Hill that the White House informed the network it will last no longer than eight minutes.
Most major broadcast networks have indicated they also plan to carry the Democratic response to Trump’s prime-time address.
The dueling speeches come as the partial shutdown, which is impacting roughly a quarter of the government, is in its 18th day. Talks between the administration and congressional Democrats appear stalemated over the border wall, raising the chances that the current funding lapse could break the 21-day shutdown record.
Trump has dug in on his demand for $5 billion for the wall. House Democrats passed a package last week that would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8, while funding the rest of the impacted departments and agencies through Sept. 30, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he will not bring a bill to the floor that Trump will not sign.