The new House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) generally is a measured speaker, but he had quite the array of rhetoric Tuesday at his briefing for reporters describing aspects of the partial government shutdown.
Some samples, all available in the audio clip below, include: “This is the third shutdown that was implemented as a policy, a policy to take hostage the people’s government and the people who work for the government. In another context, we would call that an act of kidnapping or terrorism.”
On what it would mean if President Trump declares a national emergency to build his own wall with the military, Hoyer opined: “I think it is analogous to governments that we’ve seen all over the world declaring martial law in justifying them in doing whatever they want to do to whomever they want to do it whenever they want to do it. We don’t think that’s the American way. We don’t think that the constitutional way.”
He also said Democrats would certainly consider bringing a lawsuit.
On the administration's claim that the IRS will pay out tax refunds even while it is shuttered, Hoyer offered: “The president now is going to going to order them to do what we think is illegal to do because he wants to act like a dictator."
To cap off his prebuttal, Hoyer's team offered up a fact check on some of Trump's recent claims, all to suggest there is a problem at the border, but no emergency. It is here.