Trump speech: Democrats' response gets bigger audience than president's border wall address

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The Democratic response to Donald Trump’s border wall address drew a larger audience than the president’s speech itself, preliminary numbers show.

Mr Trump spoke for a little less than 10 minutes on Tuesday night from the Oval Office, discussing his proposed wall on the border between US and Mexico on the 18th day of the ongoing partial government shutdown.

Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuch Schumer delivered their response afterwards, drawing a slightly higher number of viewers than Mr Trump, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The 15 minutes during which Mr Trump delivered his address was met with a 28.1 household rating in metered markets for several networks including ABC, CBS, Fox News, CNN and NBC.

The next 15 minutes, during which House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer spoke, achieved a 29.3 rating – four per cent higher than the rating for Mr Trump’s speech.

Both the speech and Pelosi and Schumer’s response drew millions of viewers.

CBS and NBC registered eight and seven million viewers each during the segment, according to preliminary figures.

Tuesday marked Mr Trump’s first prime-time address from the Oval Office. The president didn’t declare a national emergency over his proposed border wall, declaring instead he would seek a solution to the current situation, which has seen the White House and lawmakers butt heads over the issue.

Pelosi, in her response, accused the president of having “chosen fear”, adding about the government shutdown: “The fact is, President Trump has chosen to hold hostage critical services for the health, safety and well-being of the American people and withhold the paychecks of 800,000 innocent workers across the nation, many of them veteran.”