She is trying to get through his thick skull that she represents a coequal branch of government. Having her speak not only as a Democrat but as the the representative of a coequal branch might help, if not to reach him to reach the public and media

tRump is desperate, and is using the bully pulpit to preach his fear mongering lies.

We gotta have a response with a powerful pushback!

On edit: Remind America Mexico will never pay for his vanity wall, and neither should taxpayers. That is, the same folks who will not get tax refunds on time due to his impulsive shutdown.

but Ex-POTUS protocol probably works against BO going national on Trump. That said, these are unusual times and clearly BO might think the situation is serious enough to shatter tradition.

He's broken rules that haven't been written yet.

At this point, let protocol be damned. Dems forward!

Obama's message to the Nation on Immigration reform in 2014.

Yes, I hope they allow a Dem to speak after the MF Fraud.

Obama didn't ask the broadcast networks for time. And the government wasn't in the middle of shutdown at the time.

So it's no surprise that they'd carry Trump's remarks. But I agree they should also carry a response of similar length.

It would send the message that our current leaders, Pelosi and Schumer in particular, aren't capable of standing up to Trump. Everyone involved is smart enough to realize that.

Maybe you didn't understand that I was responding to the OP's suggestion that the response be given by Obama.

If he wanted time to speak, I'd grant him that.