Chris Van Hollen Asked About GOP Critique That He Cares More About Abrego Garcia Than Rachel Morin

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At a press briefing on Friday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke about the death of Rachel Morin.

Transcript

00:00The response from Republicans to your visit is that you care more to meet with Abrego Garcia than you do with Rachel Warren,

00:13who is the mother of a woman, a Maryland woman who died in your state.

00:17What is your response to that criticism specifically?

00:20Well, my response is that my heart goes out to the family of Rachel Warren.

00:25And as I said at the time, my heart breaks for what happened to them.

00:31That should not happen to any family in America.

00:35And I am very glad that a court of law convicted her killer and is going to punish her killer in a court of law.

00:46The reason we have courts of law are to punish the guilty, but also to make sure that those who have not committed crimes

00:55are not found guilty and arbitrarily detained.

00:59In other words, everybody has due process.

01:02So the effort by the Trump administration to try to conflate these two issues goes to the heart of what I was just talking about,

01:11their effort to change the subject.

01:13But again, to the Warren family, we have three children.

01:18I cannot imagine losing a child in the heart rate of that cause.

01:22And it should not happen.

01:23And my heart breaks for everybody in Maryland or America who has lost a loved one to violence,

01:33regardless of the perpetrator.

01:35Senator, in your meeting with the Vice President, were you able to leave any information about the United States agreement

01:40with El Salvador related to the detention facility?

01:43The terms, how much we pay, if the government has any say whatsoever what happens inside of the Brexit?

01:50So I didn't learn that directly from the Vice President, but I have learned about the commitments that have been made.

01:58So the Trump administration has promised to pay El Salvador $15 million to detain these prisoners,

02:07including the illegally abducted from the month.

02:12My best information, and it's pretty good in the case to date,

02:17they've paid out more than $4 million of that $15 million.

02:22As to the terms of an agreement, I've not seen an agreement.

02:27I don't know whether there is an agreement that specifically spells out the terms and conditions here.

02:37I am aware that there was some document that memorialized the payments.

02:44But again, I do not know in any way if it goes through the details.

02:48Senator, what's the next step here in light of the defiance from Jersey, defiance from the Trump administration?

02:57What does Congress do?

02:59So, you know, everybody asks those of us who are Democratic senators whether there's any bottom line

03:08where Republican senators will say enough's enough and won't simply continue to be rubber stamps for the Trump administration.

03:19So far, we haven't hit bottom.

03:23In this case, we have what I believe is an outright defiance of the Supreme Court.

03:30People still may want to hang their hat on the fact that it hasn't been legally adjudicated.

03:37As you know, the federal district court judge has ordered depositions of the administration officials.

03:43The Trump administration appealed it.

03:45That's what the Fourth Circuit decision was all about.

03:48That may well go to the Supreme Court.

03:50I don't know if the Trump administration is appealing that.

03:52So the question is, is there any point when the president is violating the Constitution of the United States

03:58that Republicans will stand up to the Constitution rather than just continue to do the bidding?

04:05Without Republicans, Democrats are powerless.

04:07When it comes to Congress.

04:08But let me say something about that.

04:10Not totally powerless.

04:12Because appropriations need to go through the Congress.

04:15And that $15 million, you can be sure we're going to be looking for where it is.

04:23Because that wasn't authorized in previous appropriations.

04:27We're operating under a continuing resolution.

04:29Now, they may try to pretend they can transfer that.

04:33But there's some indication that they were planning anyway until now to make that as part of the request.

04:40And you can be sure that I won't support the use of one penny of taxpayer dollars to keep Abrego Garcia illegally detained in El Salvador.

04:56And so as part of that process, yes, Democrats, at least in the Senate, have some sway.

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