Trump’s Prime-Time Pitch on Wall Fails to Break Shutdown Impasse
- President cites familiar statistics and anecdotes in speech
- Pelosi says Trump has ‘obsession’ over ‘ineffective’ wall
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Donald Trump summoned the nation’s attention to the Oval Office on Tuesday for a prime time pronouncement on the border wall standoff at the center of the government shutdown. Then, he offered nothing new.
Instead, Trump used the president’s most symbolic and powerful perch -- traditionally reserved for times of war or calls for national unity -- to rattle off familiar statistics, renew complaints about Democratic criticism of his plan to build a wall on the Mexican border and reprise ominous anecdotes of brutal crimes committed by people he said were in the country illegally.