Trump delivers speech on border “crisis”

For the first time in his presidency, President Donald Trump addressed the American people from behind his desk in the Oval Office. The subject of the address was what he called the crisis on the Southern border in an attempt to drum up democratic support for his border wall.
The crisis, according to the president, stems from illegal drugs being transported across the U.S.-Mexican border.
President Trump commented “more Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War” and said “every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone – 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border.”
He continued, “This is a humanitarian crisis – a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul. Last month, 20,000 migrant children were illegally brought into the United States – a dramatic increase. These children are used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs. One in three women are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico. Women and children are the biggest victims by far of our broken system.”
The president then focused his address on arguments against having his proposed barrier. “Some have suggested a barrier is immoral. Then why do wealthy politicians build walls, fences and gates around their homes? They don’t build walls because they hate the people on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside.”
To also combat arguments of his opponents, the leader of the free world expressed the wall will pay for itself in part “because the cost of illegal drugs exceeds $500 billion dollars a year – vastly more than the $5.7 billion dollars we have requested from Congress.”
In a concession effort with Congressional Democrats, President Trump proposed a steel barrier instead of one made of concrete.
In the democratic response, newly elected Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi from California commented, “Much of what we have heard from President Trump throughout this senseless shutdown has been full of misinformation and even malice. The President has chosen fear. We want to start with the facts.”
Standing at her side was Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) who expressed, “There is an obvious solution: separate the shutdown from the arguments over border security. There is bipartisan legislation – supported by Democrats and Republicans – to re-open government while allowing debate over border security to continue.”
He continued, “The symbol of America should be the Statue of Liberty, not a thirty-foot wall. So, our suggestion is a simple one, Mr. President: Re-open the government and we can work to resolve our differences over border security. But end this shutdown now.”