WASHINGTON, DC - House Majority Leader-Elect Steny H. Hoyer (MD) joined Judy Woodruff on PBS NewsHour this evening to discuss the Trump shutdown and today’s briefing at the White House.  Below are excerpts from the interview and a link to the video:   "[Democrats] are for border security. The objective is not the issue; the means of assuring border security is what we are debating about. But what we should not do is shut down government during the course of our discussions. Reasonable people can discuss how best to secure the border without taking hostage 800,000 people and, frankly, the millions of people who rely on the daily operations of government.”

"[Democrats’] presentation to the President was: Mr. President, don't penalize 800,000 people, don't penalize the country while we negotiate. We're prepared to negotiate. We will have discussions with you. But understand, we compromised very greatly, Judy – after all, these are all Republican [appropriations] bills. These are not our bills. These are not bills that we passed out of Committee or on the Floor of the House and the Senate… we compromised as is the legislative process.”

"…Who said I would be glad to shut down this government? Who said I will take full responsibility for shutting down this government? Who… for more than a year has said a shutdown may be good for our country? No Democrat said that, no Democrat wants to see the government shut down, and we are prepared to negotiate and discuss."