Senator Chris Van Hollen
Appearances
Consider This from NPR
Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
This isn't just like a paper violation of international law. It is ethnic cleansing by another name. And it will certainly embolden our adversaries.
Morning Wire
Congestion Toll Controversy & Diddy’s Charge Petition | Afternoon Update | 2.19.25
The Trump administration will have to cut federal funding to Maine schools in order to motivate the Democrat majority in the legislature and the unelected bureaucrats pushing this agenda to change the policy currently allowing boys to compete in girls' sports in Maine. This session, Republican legislators have submitted several bills to protect girls' sports in Maine.
Morning Wire
Congestion Toll Controversy & Diddy’s Charge Petition | Afternoon Update | 2.19.25
I invite every legislator to join me in standing up for fairness in girls' sports by passing these bills.
Morning Wire
Congestion Toll Controversy & Diddy’s Charge Petition | Afternoon Update | 2.19.25
This has everything to do to taking over the reins of government, to serve the already powerful, and to slash public services that help every American to make more room for tax cuts for Elon Musk. That is what this corrupt bargain is all about.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
Elon Musk spent over $280 million to elect Donald Trump. And Donald Trump is now allowing him to rampage through federal agencies. We need to end this illegal power grab and we are going to do it now. We are not going back. Are we going to let Elon Musk take control of the government? Hell no. Are we going to allow this illegal operation to continue?
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
It's great to be with you, Rachel.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
Yes. Look, I think we have to fight these illegal actions being taken by the Trump administration and by Elon Musk at every juncture. So that means fighting them in the courts. And we've seen judges issue temporary restraining orders. It means fighting them in the Congress with everything we have. We can't be business as usual. And it means mobilizing public opinion around the country. Look,
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
The thing that Trump-Musk team would like to see more than anything is for people to be cynical and just sit back while this illegal takeover of the government happens. We have good immune systems in our democracy, and so seeing the public rise up is really important. And the message, Rachel,
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
has to be not only that this is an illegal takeover by Musk and the most corrupt bargain in American history, but really a great betrayal of Donald Trump, of the people who voted for him, because he said he was going to focus on bringing down prices. Prices are going up.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
Instead, he is hollowing out the federal government and cutting services in order to pay for what will be a big tax break for wealthy Americans. So it's very important that we reach out to people across the country and help everyone see that betrayal that's going on.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
I think there's several things going on. I mean, I definitely think that they want to attack the organs of government and those important services to the American people because they don't like government.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
I do think they want to create the impression, Rachel, that they're making these huge, quote, efficiency gains and they're going to save all this money and therefore they're going to pay for their tax cuts. The great lie is, as you say, this has nothing to do with government efficiency, right? If you wanted to make the government more efficient, you wouldn't start by firing
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
all the inspector generals whose job it is to look out for waste, fraud and abuse. Doing that actually clears the way for the kind of corruption that Elon Musk would like to bring to the government. I think what they're trying to do is get the federal government to serve the already powerful and the already wealthy like Elon Musk.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
That's why they want to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that goes after scam artists and fraudsters and returns billions of dollars to American consumers who got cheated. They want to privatize the National Weather Service at NOAA. They want to sell it off to the highest bidder.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
They want to collect all this very sensitive personal information, social security numbers, bank accounts. So I agree that a lot of what they're doing is to destroy government, but also to so weaken it that it can then serve their purposes. And I think they want to create the impression that in the process they're saving money to pay for their tax cuts. All of it is a big lie.
The Rachel Maddow Show
'Have you considered resigning?': Maddow calls out Trump staffers who fired nuclear safety personnel
Thank you.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
Well, because I wanted to let him know, number one, that I was bringing greetings from his family who haven't heard from him since he was disappeared, right? He was locked away. No one was able to reach him, not his wife, not his mom, not his lawyers. In fact, until this moment, I'm the only one who's communicated with him before or since.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
So I wanted to, number one, see if he was alive, but I also wanted to let him know that his case was something that was meaningful to every American who cares about the Constitution. And I wanted to ask the government of El Salvador to stop being complicit, complicit with the Trump administration in this illegal scheme.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
So it was to really defend the rights of this person, because if we don't defend the rights of this individual, we do threaten rights for everybody who lives here.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
Well, I asked, of course, the vice president. He said no. I said, if I come back next week, can I meet with him? No. Well, maybe I could get him on the phone. No. So the next day I decided not to give up. I drove towards Seacott prison. About three kilometers out, I was waved to the side of the road by soldiers, stopped me. You could see traffic continuing past me.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
And so I said, why are you stopping me? They said, you can't go to see, you know, Abrego Garcia. And I said, do you know how he's doing? They said, no. And I said, why can't I go? They said, we have orders. So then we had some number of press events in El Salvador with local press and they did relent.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
And I think that even Bukele recognized that it was a bad look for El Salvador to not allow anybody to meet or talk with this guy, to even know whether he was alive. And so as I was sort of getting ready to go to the airport on the way home, we got a call and I ended up meeting with him. What did he tell you? Well, first and foremost, he told me he missed his family.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
And I told him how much his family missed him. And he said that thinking of them is what gave him strength every day. He said he had had a traumatic experience, of course. But that was his word, traumatic, both in being illegally abducted. He said he tried to make a phone call from, you know, the Baltimore, I think it was the Baltimore Detention Center. They wouldn't let him do it.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
And then, of course, he landed in this really awful situation. uh, Seacott, uh, prison. So he was traumatized. He said he, he hurt, he felt he was in pain, said he hadn't, you know, committed any crimes. Uh, and, um, he asked me to, you know, pass his message of, of love back to his family.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
And I informed him cause he'd been in a total news blackout that, you know, his case was now representative of, of the fight for constitutional rights and due process for everybody who lives in America and that a lot of people were working to get him out of prison in accordance with the Supreme Court 9-0 order to facilitate his return.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
So the first place he went was Seacott. And he said he was not in fear for safety from the prisoners in his cell. He said, if I recall right, there are about 25 prisoners in his cell. He said he was scared and traumatized by other prisoners in other cells. And these cells are packed. I mean, they sometimes have more than 100 prisoners.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
And he said that they would sort of call out to him and taunt him and, uh, in various ways. And that did make him feel very much at risk. He told me that he'd been moved to this other prison and detention center in Santa Ana. He told me he'd been there about eight days.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
This is as the time I met with him, which were sort of better conditions, but still, and I want to stress this, still no ability to to communicate with anybody in the outside world and to learn anything about what's happening in the outside world. And that's why, you know, this is, that's a violation of international law to deny somebody the ability to talk to their lawyer or family.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
So that's where he is sitting. Um, as we, he speak, he was clearly traumatized. Um, you know, when I, we talked about his family, he, he welled up, he teared, you can see a tear roll down his eyes. So he's, I mean, obviously it's a terrible, terrible situation and to be picked off the street and have the Trump administration admit it was wrongful in court.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
So interesting you raised that. I call this Margaritagate. They brought him to my hotel. At first, they wanted to stage the meeting by the pool, right, to create this impression to deceive people thinking that he was in some tropical paradise when he'd been in one of the worst prisons in El Salvador, notorious prison.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
And if you look at the first photos taken, you'll see that, well, number one, I didn't let them set us by the pool. But you'll see that they, you'll see the original setting of the table just had water glasses and a cup of coffee. During our conversation, the government folks from Bukele said, instructed the waiters to set two taller-looking glasses on our table, making it look like margaritas.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
I have no idea what's in them because neither of us touched them, but they had a little cherry on top, and they had either salt or sugar on the rim. And I said they totally screwed up the staging because— If you want to play Sherlock Holmes, you can see that there's no gap in the sugar or the salt where someone would have taken a sip. Although they tried, they put less liquid in his.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
I think this is very instructive because it shows the lengths that Bukele and Trump will go to to deceive the American people about what's happening, right? Here's a guy illegally abducted, ends up in the worst prison, and they want to create this impression that, hey, this is, he's just in paradise. No problems.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
You know, my point on all of this, Sean, is that... They should bring those facts before the court and Trump should not just be spending all his time on social media. Put up or shut up in federal court. And I want to read to you and I keep it with me because I want to quote the federal judge in this case. Exactly.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
She said that the Trump administration had presented, quote, no evidence, no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to any terrorist activity, period. So put up or shut up in court. Again, I'm not vouching for the man. I'm standing up for his rights because all of our rights are at risk if we don't.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
My response is there's never a wrong time to stand up for the Constitution of the United States and due process. And I think— Americans of all political persuasions really don't like people who put their finger to the wind and try and decide what to do. I will say that when you're talking about fighting for fundamental rights, at the end of the day, I know the American people are with us.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
Well, this is a fundamental constitutional issue and it is a crisis because the Supreme Court has ruled nine to nothing that the Trump administration has to help facilitate his return to the United States. You know that you don't get many nine nothing decisions out of the Supreme Court. I also do just want to briefly quote what the Fourth Circuit said. This is a three judge panel.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
And the chief judge who wrote it is a guy called Judge Wilkinson. He was appointed by Reagan. Here's what he says. It is difficult in some cases to get to the heart of the matter. But in this case. It's not hard at all.
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. So this is not a distraction. This goes to the heart of protecting people's rights and what bullies do and what authoritarian leaders do and what Donald Trump is doing is beginning by picking on the most vulnerable
Today, Explained
How the Abrego Garcia standoff ends
And refusing to bring his case in the courts and when the courts rule, ignoring them. So this is a very important moment to protect everyone's constitutional rights. It's not about one person. It's about all of us.