Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders delivered his own rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night Oval Office speech on the need for a border barrier.

Sanders’ 12-minute speech reacting to Trump’s was delivered shortly after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave the official Democratic rebuttal and was carried first on the Vermont Independent Senator’s Facebook page.

WATCH:

Sanders began his speech by blaming Trump for creating the “national emergency” the president says exists at the border — because of the federal employees “going without pay.”

“Our federal employees deserve to be treated with respect, not held hostage as pawns,” he said.

The socialist from Vermont focused his presentation on aspects of the government shutdown, including federal employees affected as well as citizens who may not be able “to get the food stamps they need to eat.”

Sanders stated his belief that the “shutdown should never have happened” because President Trump changed his mind last month on a bill that had already been agreed upon in the Senate.

“The total cost of that wall could run as high as $70 billion,” Sanders said before quoting Trump taking the “mantle” for the shutdown during his Oval Office meeting with the president. (RELATED: Twitter Goes Wild Over Chuck And Nancy’s ‘Painfully Awkward’ Appearance In Trump Rebuttal)

“It gives me no pleasure to tell you what most people already know, and that is that President Trump lies all of the time, and in his remarks tonight and in recent weeks regarding immigration and the wall he continues to lie,” said Sanders before citing a literal interpretation of Trump saying Mexico would pay for the wall and several other examples of what he considered Trump’s lies.

Sanders ended his speech with a call to “transform our energy system away from fossil fuels” because of “climate change.”

“Mr. President, we don’t need to create artificial crises. We have enough real crises,” Sanders said before calling on Trump to “end this shutdown.”

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