Bernie Sanders made an appearance outside the AFL-CIO union headquarters in Washington DC on Thursday, where hundreds of federal workers protested the government shutdown.

"It is unbelievable that we have a president of the United States who is prepare to deny a paycheck to 800,000 federal workers. It is unbelievable that we have a president of the United States who is prepared to deny basic governmental services to millions of Amerians who need those services," Sanders says. "So today we say to this president, grow up, do your job, end this shutdown!"

Congress and the president have been locked in a stalemate over his demand for $5.7 billion to build a border wall that he'd said Mexico would pay for. Discussions have yielded little result.

The shutdown is on its 20th day and will become the longest in the country's history by Saturday.

Bernie Sanders speaks at the 1/10/2019 rally at the AFL-CIO to end the US government shutdown