Schumer and Pelosi’s response got bigger ratings than Trump’s prime-time border speech

After President Trump‘s Oval Office speech this Tuesday night where he advocated for his border wall, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were granted airtime to respond to Trump’s remarks. As The Hill reports, viewership for the Dems’ response outpaced Trump’s speech by a slightly higher margin.

From The Hill:

According to early numbers from Nielsen, the quarter hour from 9 to 9:15 p.m. ET that included the president’s address attracted a combined 28.1 rating in metered markets on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.

The 15 minutes that followed immediately after that included remarks by Pelosi and Schumer registered 29.3 across those same networks.

CBS led the way with 8 million viewers, with NBC second with 7 million. ABC had 4.43 million viewers and FOX saw 2.56 million tuning in.

The early numbers also show that the Pelosi-Schumer response beat Trump by 26 percent on CNN and 15 percent on MSNBC, according to Deadline.

The response wasn’t immune from online mockery, however. Some pointed to the pair standing awkwardly next to each other and said they were reminiscent of the creepy twins from the horror flick The Shining. Others said they looked like the couple from the classic painting American Gothic.

If there’s still a sense is that a solution to the government shutdown won’t be coming any time soon, the back-to-back speeches only solidified that.

“President Trump must stop holding the American people hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis and must reopen the government,” Pelosi said.

“Separate the shutdown from the arguments over border security,” Schumer added. “There is bipartisan legislation — supported by Democrats and Republicans — to reopen government while allowing debate over border security to continue.”

“Democrats and the President both want stronger border security,” he continued. “However, we sharply disagree with the President about the most effective way to do it.”

Watch Schumer and Pelosi’s full response below, via The Washington Post:

Featured image via screen grab

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.