Transcript for Pence calls for Congress to address border issue

professional career. Troy did all right. The government shutdown now entering day 18. President trump showing no signs of backing down making a prime time address to the nation tonight and then traveling to the border on Thursday. Democrats will have a response as well. This Friday marks the first missed paychecks for 800,000 federal employees working without pay or furloughed. It will be the longest on record. Jon Karl spoke with vice president pence and starts us off. Reporter: The vice president said the president will portray this as a national security crisis at the border but there is a real credibility question. I asked the vice president about the repeated false statements, inaccuracies coming from the white house on this issue. Thank you, Mr. Vice president. The president told democratic leaders that the shutdown could go on for months, even years. Is he really prepared to keep the government shut down that long? I think president trump is prepared to do what's necessary to address what is a real humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border. Look, Jon, the American people deserve to know that the situation on our southern border has become as "The Washington post" said a bona fide emergency. 60,000 people a month and for the first time on record, the vast majority of those are families, unaccompanied children and it simply is overwhelming the ability of our border patrol and customs agents to be able to address it. We need new resources. We need to build a wall. We need the congress to come to the table and work with this president to address this crisis once and for all. But more broadly how can the president be -- how can his word be trusted when he has said so many things that are not true. He said Barack Obama has a ten-foot wall built around his house. You know that's not true. He said some of his predecessors told him they wanted to build a wall but all four living presidents have now put out statements they never had any such conversation with the president and then you saw Sarah Sanders say that nearly 4,000 terrorists come into the country every year and, you know, that's not true either. How can the American people trust the president when he says this is a crisis, when he says things over and over again that aren't true? Well, look, the American people aren't as concerned about the political debate as they are concerned about what's really happening at the border and -- This is credibility. The white house said 4,000 terrorists coming to our country. That's not true. 4,000 known or suspected terrorists were app kepted attempting T into the United States through various means in the last year. Overwhelmingly at airport, not at the border. 3,000 special interest individuals, people with suspicious backgrounds that may suggest terrorist connections were apprehended at our southern border. Last year alone, 17,000 individuals with criminal histories were apprehended at our southern border. Literally billions of dollars of narcotics flow through our southern border. The heroin that comes into this country that claims the lives of 300 Americans every week comes through our southern border. The passion you hear from president trump, his determination to take this case to the American people as he will tonight in his national broadcast from the oval office comes from this president's deep desire to do his job to protect the American people and we'll continue to carry that case forward until the Democrats in congress come to the table and start negotiating, not just to end the government shutdown, but to address what is an undeniable crisis at our southern border. Why are we in this mess in the first place? The president said over and over again, in fact, you said that Mexico was going to pay for this wall so now he's shutting down the government so that -- to force taxpayers to pay for the wall. I mean, that was a promise that he didn't say once or twice or three times but said over and over again, Mexico isoing to pay. That's right, and the president renegotiated the nafta agreement. Now the u.s./mexico/canada agreement in a way that it will benefit the United States in jobs and tax revenues. That's not what he said. He didn't say he would renegotiate a deal -- We've also negotiated a new arrangement with Mexico going forward that when individuals come into this country and come to this country and apply for asylum they'll be able to remain in Mexico while they're going through the judicial process. Democrats refuse to even negotiate to end the shutdown and address the border crisis and it's time they came back to the table. Mr. Vice president, thank you. Thank you for your time. Jon, you pressed the vice president pretty hard and also asked about this idea the president might declare a national emergency to go around congress if they can't negotiate a deal Reporter: He said the presidenis considering that as we've heard from the president that they are loo into that but I pressed how would that work and does the predent really believe that he could ild the wall without any congressional approval or congressional authorization and no direct answer on how that would work but say it is something under consideration, no decision yet made. We'll ask kamala Harris about that in our next half hour. Thanks very much.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.