Today marks day 20 of the federal government shutdown.
Farmers can't get the loans that they're promised,
people are facing evictions, and the government's so broke
they had to start renting the Lincoln Memorial out on Airbnb.
And because 800,000 government workers
are not being paid, some of them were rallying in D.C. today.
So we sent Michael Kosta to show some support.
It's day 20
of the second longest government shutdown in history.
1995, we're comin' for ya! Whoo!
With no end in sight, civil servants are marching
on Washington, D.C., and the president knows why.
People that won't get next week's pay,
or the following week's pay,
I think if you ever really looked at those people,
I think they'd say, "Mr. President, keep going."
He's talking about people who work for the IRS
or Homeland Security or NASA
and are about to miss their first paycheck.
Time to give these people a chance
to speak to the president directly
and to tell him to keep going!
This is a card for President Trump
to tell him to keep going.
You write whatever you want to President Trump
-on his "Keep Going" card. -American Federation
of Government Employees, hell no.
He wrote, "Keep going, Mr. President.
We are all not behind you."
You mean "not not," is what he meant to write.
Stop...
the...
B.S.
"Stop the B.S."
Bad Seeds trying to come in from over the border, right?
We got it, Ryan.
See? The people do support the president.
You tell President Trump exactly how much you support him
in what he's doing.
Don't hold back.
Maybe this rally just needs a good, simple chant.
Keep going! Keep going!
Keep going, Mr. President! Keep going, Mr. President!
Where is everybody leaving?
Come back.
-(cheering, applause) -Michael Kosta, everyone.
Thanks so much, Michael.
Now, with all the support behind him,
President Trump decided to plow forward
on proving his case for a border wall.
So today the commander in chief put on his travel Barbie outfit
and flew down to the southern border
to get a firsthand account of the situation.
And while he was there,
he gave us all a drunk history lesson.
They say a wall is medieval. Well, so is a wheel.
A wheel is older than a wall.
And I look, and every single car out there,
even the really expensive ones that the Secret Service uses--
and believe me, they are expensive.
I said, "Do they all have wheels?"
"Yes." "Oh, I thought it was medieval."
The wheel is older than the wall, you know that?
And, uh, there are some things that work.
You know what? A wheel works, and a wall works.
You know, if a football player got up after a tackle
and started talking like that, the trainer would be like,
"Uh, we need to get you to the locker room now.
Your brain is not okay."
And just by the way, I don't even...
I can't believe we have to say this.
If there are any kids watching
that are gonna use this on a history test,
walls are actually much older than the wheel.
Right? 6,000 years older than the wheel.
(cheering and applause)
Like, back in the day, cavemen had walls.
So I guess people should stop calling Trump a Neanderthal,
because a Neanderthal would know that.
#NotMyNeanderthal.
Now, uh, after putting the president's word
through Google Translate, I think what he's trying to say
is that just because the wall is old technology
doesn't mean it's not gonna be effective, right?
The only problem is since walls have been around for so long,
people have had centuries
to figure out how to get through them.
The president in the Oval Office address
and his administration have been pushing this idea now
of this, a steel slat barrier, which is already in use
down here along the southern border.
We know from DHS testing over the course of the last year
that all of President Trump's prototypes
were breachable in some way.
But now, for the first time,
NBC News has exclusively obtained a photograph
of the steel slat barrier style border wall design
that was clearly cut through
with what we are told is a household saw.
Okay, okay. Now, you laugh, but to be fair, to be fair,
you can't just get through with a household saw, okay?
You also need some immigrant can-do work ethic.
'Cause let me tell you, 'cause let me tell you,
I've tried... I've tried sawing before,
and that shit takes forever.
After five minutes I was like, "Forget it.
I'm just gonna bury the body in one piece. Like..."
Actually, it's so hard to saw through that level of steel
that I think if a Mexican manages
to saw his way into America,
we should just give that person a job.
Yeah. Yeah, like, just hire them.
In fact, here's my pitch. Here's my pitch.
That should be how you do merit-based immigration, right?
However they manage to get in should just be, like, the skill
that you use to your advantage in America.
If you saw through, you work in construction.
Go, straightaway. Straightaway.
If they climb over the wall, you're a firefighter now.
Go, go, go, go.
And then, all you guys running away,
we'll see you on the Olympic team!
(chanting): U.S.A.
U.S.A. U.S.A.
-MAN: U.S.A. -U.S....
No, no, you, S.A. You, S.A.
(laughter)
Now... now, you...
now, you'd think... you'd think...
you'd think the news
that you can just saw through a steel wall
would be devastating news for Trump,
but apparently he already knows about this,
and he's not concerned.
There's nothing that can't be penetrated,
but you fix it.
But it's a very difficult thing to do.
But that's a wall, and they have other walls.
We have many walls under consideration.
Even concrete.
There's acid that can go through concrete.
Don't give them more ideas. What are you doing?
(laughter)
I didn't even know that was possible.
You're gonna build a wall
and then tell everyone how to get through it?
Trump would be the worst bank robber ever.
"This is a stickup! But I've got weak wrists.
"If you hit me right here, the gun will fly out.
It's just gonna fly out. Right here."
(laughter)
But look, I get what he's saying.
Again, I get it.
Even if a wall isn't 100% impenetrable,
it's still better than nothing.
And America's gonna need all the help it can get,
because the way Trump tells it,
things on the border are about to get nuts.
Here's the story.
There is another major caravan
forming right now in Honduras.
And so far we're trying to break it up.
But so far it's bigger than anything we've seen.
Wow. Another caravan.
It's so convenient how whenever Trump needs to win something,
a big, scary caravan is always coming to kill us all.
'Cause first it was the midterms,
and now it's the shutdown.
Like, I feel like if Trump isn't careful,
he's gonna run into a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" situation.
You know? Someday there is gonna be a big caravan
full of ISIS, drug dealers and Shreks
pouring over the border.
And Trump will be like, "There really is a caravan this time."
And we'll be like, "Whatever, old man.
Aah! The Shrek's eating my face!"
But still, like, a caravan is forming
across the southern border and making its way north?
I don't know why, but the president makes it sound
like a hurricane of Hondurans is heading for the U.S.
You know? No, I mean, like,
say what you want about him as president,
but Donald Trump would make a great immigration weatherman.
Here's the story.
There is another major caravan
forming right now in Honduras.
And so far we're trying to break it up.
But so far it's bigger than anything we've seen.
And a drone isn't gonna stop it,
and a sensor isn't gonna stop it.
But you know what's gonna stop it in its tracks?
A nice, powerful wall.
(laughter)
-So... -(cheering and applause)
So, clearly...
Clearly, Trump is not budging from his insistence on a wall,
which means this shutdown will keep going on
for who knows how long,
and that's going to be extremely hard
on a lot of these workers,
especially considering that many of these government employees
have to keep working even if they're not getting paid.
And I'm talking everyone,
all the way from Secret Service to the TSA.
And say what you want about the TSA,
but they work hard to keep us safe.
If they don't get paid for a long time,
I'm afraid that airports could start to look a lot like this.
Hey, did they say when we're gonna get paid?
Nope.
(beeping)
You good, man. Come on through.
-(hissing) -(beeping continuing)
Yo, I'm thinking about becoming an Uber driver.
That's a good idea.
I might renew my license.
Do you get a car with that?
No, those are personal. They smell too bad.
I mean, who knows how long this thing's gonna last?
Trump said it could be years.
Years?
Yo, that's crazy.
Man, at least, when I worked at McDonald's,
we could, like, take free burgers home and stuff.
Here, if I take somebody's luggage, then it's a problem.
-(beeping) -(horse neighs) -Yeah, we just got to face it.
Washington doesn't care about the little man.
-All they care about is lining their pockets -(alarm whooping)
with corporate dollars-- Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey.
(whooping stops)
This a sandwich?
Oh, my God, I'm starving. Go ahead.
Have a safe flight.
-(beeping) -Yeah.
-Is that banh mi? -Mm-hmm.
-Can I get some of that? -Yeah, man, jump in.
-Oh, my God, I haven't eaten since Tuesday. -Jump in.
-Go on, man. -(audience awwing)
Roy Wood Jr. and Jaboukie Young-White, everybody.