Transcript for Democrats demand equal time to respond to Trump's primetime address

that in our next half hour. Thanks very much. Democratic leaders want equal time demanding equal time on TV to respond to president trump so let's go to our senior congressional correspondent Mary Bruce on capitol hill with more details on that. Good morning, Mary. Reporter: Good morning. Democrats are clearly concerned about the nation only hearing one side of this argument and not getting the facts. They are demanding equal time tonight to respond saying in a statement, quote, if the president's past statements are any indication it will be full of malice and misinformation. Now, here on the hill Democrats are trying to ramp up the pressure on Republicans saying they won't vote for any legislation until Republicans vote to re-open the government. Mitch Mcconnell won't take up any funding bill unless he's certain the president will support it. We're in day 18 of the down. What new impacts are we feeling? Reporter: The white house is trying to mitigate impacts ordering irs agents back so that they can process tax returns while at the department of housing they are asking landlords no the to evict tenants who receive federal housing. The TSA insists the shutdown is not impacting operations but, robin, the air line pilots association says it is making the air system more dangerous saying, quote, the shutdown is adversely affecting the safety, security and efficiency of our national airspace system. One thing is for sure, if this stalemate continues through Saturday, this will then be the longest shutdown in the nation's history. The one thing that is for sure. Thank you so much. You will be anchoring our live coverage of the president's prime time address and the democratic response. It all starts at 9:00 P.M. Eastern on ABC. Now to that breaking news

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