Politics
Associated Press/Alex Brandon
President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks from Marine One, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. Trump returned from a trip to Camp David.
- President Donald Trump is set to deliver a primetime address to the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday night.
- The address comes 18 days into a partial government shutdown - a result of a disagreement on funding Trump's desired wall along the border of the US and Mexico.
- Some speculated that Trump could declare a national emergency in order to bypass Congress for the wall funding, but sources familiar with the matter told CNN he was not expected to do so on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump is set to address the nation during primetime on Tuesday night in his first Oval Office speech. The president is expected to discuss what he has labeled a "crisis" along the US-Mexico border.
Trump has spent much of the last three weeks raging against Congressional Democrats for refusing to fund the wall he has long promised to build along the border. Both Trump and Democrats have refused to budge from their positions, resulting in a partial government shutdown now in its third week.
It's unclear what Trump will say in his remarks, but some had speculated he could declare a national emergency in order to bypass Congress for the wall funding, as he had indicated in a speech on Friday. But as of Tuesday afternoon, multiple sources told CNN that Trump was not expected to announce a national emergency during the address.
Trump's address comes amid scrutiny over false or misleading statements he and his administration have made linking migrants with terrorism at the southern border.
Despite Trump's statement on Friday that "we have terrorists coming through the southern border," the administration has since conceded that the vast majority of known and suspected terrorists enter the US through airports, and that the terror watchlist is not always accurate.
Trump announced the address - his first Oval Office address during primetime, according to CBS News - in a tweet on Monday. It was initially unclear if networks would carry the address, however, CNN, ABC, NBC
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded airtime for a Democratic response, which CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox are all expected to air.
Associated Press/Evan Vucci
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of Calif., walk to speak with reporters after meeting with President Donald Trump about border security in the Situation Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 4, 2019, in Washington.
The address comes 18 days into a partial government shutdown - the second-longest shutdown in history, following a 21-day shutdown during the Clinton administration. The shutdown is a result of a disagreement on the funding of Trump's desired wall along the border of the US and Mexico.
During his 2016 campaign, Trump often repeated the line that Mexico would pay for the wall. However, he has repeatedly asked Congress for billions of dollars of US taxpayer money to build the barrier.
At the end of 2018, Trump said he would not sign any government funding bills if they did not include wall funding - after initially signaling that he would sign a stopgap measure, which was passed in the Senate, to fund part of the government until February 8.
The shutdown impacts roughly 20% of the federal government: nine federal agencies and 800,000 federal workers - 420,000 of which must still work without pay.
In November 2014, the big-four networks NBC, Fox, CBS, and ABC did not air President Barack Obama's 8 p.m. ET address about immigration reform. It streamed live on Facebook and was aired by cable networks like Fox News and CNN, instead.
According to the Guardian, the Obama administration put out "feelers" to gauge network interest, and after getting a "reluctant" response they did not put in a formal request.