Trump Spreads Lies In Televised Speech For Border Wall Funding

Every major television network handed President Donald Trump prime airtime on Tuesday night to repeat debunked lies about immigration.

Trump made no new announcements and broke no new ground in his prime-time televised address. He repeated his demand for $5.7 billion in border wall money to end the nearly three-week partial shutdown of the federal government, offering the deal as the only solution to a major national security crisis. He put the onus on congressional lawmakers to craft such a plan to reopen more than half a dozen federal agencies that have remained partly shuttered since before Christmas.

How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job? Trump asked during the address. For those who refuse to compromise in the name of job security, I would ask, imagine if it were your child, your husband or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken. To every member of Congress, pass a bill that ends this crisis.

Trump repeated several mistruths in an attempt to tout the barrier, casting migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. as criminals and listing off a slew of crimes that critics saw as an attempt to generate fear.

After the #TrumpAddress, @SenSchumer & I are talking about the facts & how we can end the #TrumpShutdown. https://t.co/hoqAKwoqf9

Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 9, 2019","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Nancy Pelosi","author_url":"https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi","cache_age":86400,"description":"After the #TrumpAddress, @SenSchumer & I are talking about the facts & how we can end the #TrumpShutdown. https://t.co/hoqAKwoqf9 Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 9, 2019\n\n","provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Nancy Pelosi on 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After the #TrumpAddress , @SenSchumer & I are talking about the facts & how we can end the #TrumpShutdown . https://t.co/hoqAKwoqf9
Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 9, 2019

This president just used the backdrop of the Oval Office to manufacture a crisis, stoke fear, and divert attention from the turmoil in his administration, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a televised address after Trumps speech.

During the address, Trump also tried to pit Americans of color against undocumented immigrants in his quest for public sympathy.

All Americans are hurt by uncontrolled illegal migration. It strains public resources and drives down jobs and wages. Among those hardest-hit are African Americans and Hispanic Americans, said Trump, who largely won his election by playing to the anxieties of white voters.

He also repeated misleading claims that Mexico would indirectly pay for the wall through a revised trade deal, an assertion that has been debunked by leading economists. Trade experts say any benefits from the revamped deal would be dwarfed by the cost of the wall.

The presidents address, which ran for around 10 minutes, was carried by every major television network in America as well as some cable providers. The media giants had to make quick decisions as to whether they would accommodate Trump, who tweeted his intentions to speak to the country during prime time in a missive just a day earlier.