Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) acknowledged the Democratic Party‘s defeated stance and suggested that things could only improve.
The Republican Party holds the White House and the majority in the Senate and House of Representatives. At the Axios News Shapers event on Wednesday, reporter Stephen Neukam asked Van Hollen about the Democratic Party’s losses and its unpopularity following the 2024 election.
“We have only up to go. That’s good news. And so, look, I think there are two things. One is I think Americans, regardless of political party, want people who are going to fight for the things they believe in. I think they are tired of people who have sort of their fingers in the wind to try to figure out where to go,” Van Hollen said. “So my view is in addition to fighting, that we should have some alternative, and I’m working right now to present that kind of alternative.”
The Maryland senator has made President Donald Trump’s immigration policy the center of his criticisms. Earlier this month, Van Hollen went to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant the Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador, outside of the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, referred to as the CECOT.
This visit prompted criticism because, in Maryland, at around the same time Van Hollen left for El Salvador, Rachel Morin had her day in court posthumously when a jury convicted Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, an illegal immigrant, of her murder. Her mother, Patty Morin, said the senator hasn’t bothered to call her since the death of her daughter last year.
KAROLINE LEAVITT BLASTS SUPPORT FOR ABREGO GARCIA: ‘SHAME ON SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN’
Abrego Garcia has since left CECOT, but Van Hollen still criticizes the Trump administration for not bringing him back. On Wednesday, he said, “It’s clear that the Trump administration continues to violate the Constitution and Abrego Garcia’s due process rights.”
Abrego Garcia met with 17 judges from the time he was arrested in 2019 until he was deported in March.
