House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the president has "chosen fear" in making the case to the American people for the border wall and Democrats "want to start with the facts."
Pelosi said Tuesday night in a rebuttal to President Donald Trump's Oval Office address that "we all agree that we need to secure our borders."
She noted that the House passed legislation to reopen government on the first day of the new Congress. But Trump rejects that legislation because it doesn't have funding for his border wall.
She says: "The fact is: President Trump must stop holding the American people hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis, and must reopen the government."
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says President Donald Trump should reopen government while talks continue over the U.S.-Mexico border wall because there's "no excuse for hurting millions of Americans."
Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered the Democratic response to Trump's Oval Office address Tuesday.
Schumer says Democrats and Republicans agree on the need to secure borders. But the New York Democrat says the "symbol of America should be the Statue of Liberty, not a 30-foot wall."
Schumer noted that Trump had promised to have Mexico pay for the wall. But he says having failed, Trump is now "unable to convince Congress or the American people to foot the bill."
Schumer says, "American democracy doesn't work that way. We don't govern by temper tantrum."