WASHINGTON – Congressional Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi strongly rebuffed President Donald Trump's nationally televised call Tuesday night for billions in funding for an "ineffective, unnecessary" border wall.

Shortly after Trump argued for the wall, both Democrats not only denounced the wall but also blasted what they called the president's sharp rhetoric and constant mistruths that have led to a partial government shutdown now in its third week.

"Sadly, much of what we have heard from President Trump throughout this senseless shutdown has been full of misinformation and even malice," Pelosi said as Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, stood next to her. "The President has chosen fear."

In his roughly nine-minute address, Trump called the situation "a growing humanitarian and security and crisis in our southern border ... All Americans are hurt from uncontrolled illegal migration."

The exchange suggests the shutdown could last a while given how both sides appear dug in although Trump invited bipartisan congressional leaders to the White House for further talks Wednesday.

As he has in the past, the president blamed Democrats for the shutdown.

“The federal government remains shut down, for one reason and one reason only – because democrats will not fund border security," he said in his address.

"There is an obvious solution: separate the shutdown from the arguments over border security," Schumer said during his address. "There is bipartisan legislation – supported by Democrats and Republicans – to reopen government while allowing debate over border security to continue."

Democrats remain adamantly opposed to the $5.7 billion the president is demanding for the wall.

Their solution: Better technology. Increased hiring for ports of entry. Improved infrastructure, such as fencing.

Democrats also unveiled legislation last year to expand refugee processing in Central American countries and to disrupt drug cartels.

Faced with a divided Congress that won't support his request for wall funding, Trump is exploring other options to secure funding for the construction of a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border, including using the president's emergency powers to circumvent Congress altogether.

"We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly," Trump said Friday. "But if we can do it through a negotiated process, we are giving that a shot."

There's legal debate on whether he can do it and Trump made no mention of doing so Tuesday night.

Earlier, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., called Trump's potential invocation of his emergency powers "really threatening talk" that "he doesn't have the power to execute."

"If Harry Truman couldn't nationalize the steel industry during wartime, this president doesn't have the power to declare an emergency and build a multibillion-dollar wall on the border," Schiff told CNN.

A Morning Consult/POLITICO poll released Tuesday finds that a plurality of registered voters agree with Trump that there's a "crisis" on the Southern border because of illegal immigration.

The survey of 1,989 registered voters, conducted Jan. 4-6, found that 42 percent of voters agree with the president compared to 37 percent who see the border situation as just "a problem." Another 12 percent say it's neither.

The poll also showed that Americans are divided on support for the wall (44 percent support while 47 percent oppose). And nearly half – 47 percent – blame Trump for the shutdown, compared to Congressional Democrats (33 percent) and Congressional Republicans (5 percent).

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Trump's claims of a border being overrun by terrorists and criminals is nothing but fiction since arrests have dropped by 75 percent from 2000 and 2018.

"Tonight, the President will assert that the security of our Nation is in crisis," Leahy said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "But his claims will not be grounded in fact. The disinformation coming from the White House has been staggering. In his zeal to feign a national emergency at the border, the president has employed nothing short of a propaganda campaign."

Related:If they don't want a wall, what are Democrats' border security solutions?

Related:Government shutdown: Congress back at work, Trump to give prime-time address. Will it matter?

Contributing: William Cummings and John Fritze