Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) (Screenshot)

Democrats will not negotiate with President Donald Trump to end the partial government shutdown – because Trump is an “amoral hostage-taker”- Hawaii Democrat Sen. Mazie Hirono declared Thursday.

Speaking to members of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) at a protest in Washington, D.C., Sen. Hirono said Trump “doesn’t give a rat” about what’s right or wrong, so he’s holding 800,000 federal employees hostage by shutting down the government to “get his vanity wall”:

"Aloha, everybody! OK, how many of you think that the president is on our side? Hell no! So we know — we know that he has federal workers and unions as big, fat targets. Because federal workers, he's tried to freeze your pay. He’s made it hard for unions to organize and stay organized and now he’s shutting you all out from your jobs so that he can get his vanity wall. (Booing) There are two people who can end the shutdown right now. One is the president, but you know what? "He is an amoral hostage-taker. Amoral because he makes no difference between right and wrong nor does he give a rat, and he’s a hostage-taker because he has taken 800,000 federal employees and thousands and thousands of contractors hostage, and we don’t negotiate with amoral hostage-takers. (Cheering) That doesn’t get us anywhere.” "The second person who could end this shutdown right now is Mitch McConnell."

Technically, Senate Majority Leader, Sen. McConnell (R-Kentucky) could only bring budget legislation, which Pres. Trump has vowed to veto if he does not include border funding, to a vote.