MA Democrats Hit Back Against Trump's Border Wall Speech

Massachusetts Democrats fought back Tuesday against President Donald Trump's primetime speech insisting on border wall funding before the government is reopened. In the nationally televised speech, Trump largely repeated his familiar narrative that the southern border needs a wall to stem illegal immigration.

Shortly before Trump's speech, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said ending the "#TrumpShutdown" will make the country safer. Warren is a longtime critic and potential 2020 opponent of Trump.

Members of the Congressional delegation from Massachusetts tweeted before, during and after the speech.

Rep. Lori Trahan tweeted in line with the Democratic Party's stance that border security shouldn't be holding the government hostage. On Monday, Trahan said discussions about a border wall should be on the table as lawmakers try to negotiate with the president to reopen the federal government.

Pressley on Tuesday attacked Trump's insistence on border funding in her one-minute floor speech.

"This has nothing to do with border security. Your shutdown, another Trump generated crisis, has brought a tsunami of hurt," Pressley said, according to a transcript provided by her office. "So, I rise today to lift the voices of the unheard. I rise today on behalf of the families concerned about feeding their children because their WIC benefits will run dry."

The Massachusetts effect

Earlier Tuesday, two freshman lawmakers wrote to Gov. Charlie Baker to urge him to immediately request emergency funding for regional food banks if the federal government shutdown drastically reduces the availability of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in Massachusetts.

Sen. Jo Comerford of Northampton and Rep. Mindy Domb of Amherst, both of whom previously worked in fields addressing chronic hunger, said there will be "a significant shortfall in SNAP benefits" if the shutdown extends into February.

"Children, the elderly, and working families comprise the largest percentage of recipients. We must not allow their well-being to suffer as a result of a shutdown predicated on an ill-conceived wall between the United States and Mexico," the lawmakers wrote. "We cannot ignore the dire impact the loss of SNAP benefits would have on individuals and families across the Commonwealth."

There are "upwards of 746,000" Massachusetts residents who rely on the food stamps program, Comerford and Domb said, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated SNAP keeps 141,000 Bay Staters out of poverty each year.

In their letter to Baker on Tuesday, Comerford and Domb said that Baker's administration has been in touch with other states "to understand what steps those states are taking in the face of this crisis" and that the administration has talked with state House and Senate leaders about what the state Legislature might be able to do. "The path ahead may very well include a supplemental budget," the lawmakers wrote.

Reporting from Dave Copeland, Patch, and materials from State House News Service were used in this report.

(Photo by Carlos Barria-Pool/Getty Images)