U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen 7-23-26

Every dating app swipe is another loss. Jimbros, fake CEOs, straight up losers. So now the only app I open is Moto Casino. Because at least there, I'm surrounded by winners. Real winners. Thousands of them. While everyone else is in the single swamp, I'm at home relaxing while stacking bonuses, hitting wins, and playing all my favorite Vegas-style games. Modo Casino, the only app worth your time. Moto Casino, the Social Casino, where prohibited, no purchase necessary, visit moto.como.combo. Download the Modo Casino app today. Must be 21 plus. Good morning. This is an answer for today. I am Chris Ryan. I appreciate joining us for the show. As we wrapped up our trip in D.C. yesterday, an opportunity to sit down with U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland to discuss a number of topics, including the midterm and also the ongoing U.S. war in Iran. Senator Chris Van Hollen, thanks for joining us. Chris, great to be with you again. So I want to start off with this. Secretary Hegesith was on Capitol Hill. You, along with other colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee, questioned him about a request for supplemental funding for the war in Iran. What is next when it comes to that funding request? Do you feel that that will, in fact, pass the Senate and potentially the House? as well and what did you take away from yours and your colleagues questioning of the war secretary Well, Chris, I will not vote for one dime for this illegal war in Iran. The Trump administration has no idea what it's doing. Listening to Secretary Pete Hegseth yesterday was clear that they have no idea how they plan to end this war. They keep saying we're winning. President Trump said we were winning that we'd won back in March. And the question is, if we won back in March, why did we just see more service? members killed. Why are we seeing gas prices go through the roof? What do you think happens when it comes to the overall Senate? Do you feel that your Republican colleagues are waning on this as well? On the House side, Speaker Johnson told President Trump to wrap this up. It is very rare. I could count probably on one finger the time that Johnson and Trump have not been aligned so far this session. Do you feel that your Republican colleagues are waning on this war as well, or were they vote for the $67 billion as a result of not wanting to? be seen as not supporting the troops? Well, I agree that Republicans are increasingly unhappy with this ongoing war because their constituents are asking them, what the hell are we doing here? What's the purpose of this war? And nobody has a good answer as it goes on and on. Whether or not they support this request for more money, I don't know. My view is the best way to support the troops.

is for us to get out of there. I mean when you're digging a hole, stop digging. When it comes to what you're looking to do on this, from what I understand today, as this interview airs here on Thursday, you're introducing a War Powers Act, which is the first time this will come back up since the Senate has been back in session following the July 4th break. What is in that, and what do you think will come from it? Well, this is another opportunity for our Republican Senate colleagues to join. Democrats, almost all Democrats, in bringing an end to this war. My view is we all should be held accountable to our constituents. They shouldn't be able to run for cover and hide. They should be on record. And the war powers resolution, which we will vote on this week, will do that. The hope is to end the war. I was listening to some of the exchanges, yours and others, during the hearing. And one of the things that... Secretary Hegesith had said in the past both as a commentator and leading up to and during his hearings is that very often there was not clear objectives that were stated by the previous administrations or by leadership that would allow for troops to have success in doing their jobs. Do you see that in this instance where there have not been clear objectives or that the... potentially troops are even being held back from achieving objectives, such as the president is talking about, you know, expansion of this operation, which could have even been done, you would assume previous, given the nature of what they are discussing. So do you feel that, I know you're against the war, but do you feel that the military in some ways is being held back from this administration from achieving military objectives? Well, I don't think the military has clear objectives. And as General Kane said in response to my question, they get their objectives from the president, from the political leadership. Their job is to execute those objectives, the best military strategy to achieve those objectives. And when... The Trump administration's all over the map with objectives. That is a great disservice to our military and our men and women in the military. So at one point, it was regime change. Well, we got a group that's even more hard-line and militant than the government in place at the beginning. This is just another version of the government, but harder line. Number two, you know, they said we're going to...

open the Strait of Hormuz. Well, I think we all know that the Strait of Hormuz was open the day before the war. But on that point, like, I feel that if those objectives were, you know, were there, the military could meet those objectives, right? I mean, they could be, they could create regime change. They could open up the Strait of Hormuz, but it feels like they're being held back from achieving the objectives that have been stated. Well, I think when it comes to some of these objectives, the only way to achieve them, and I think this is what military folks will tell you, is you've got to go in on the ground, okay? So, you know, my view is we should not be in the war as it is. I'm definitely opposed to sending American troops into Iran on the ground. And that just goes to... how this was such a huge blunder from the beginning because this administration did not have any clear plan for how it was going to achieve. It's always shifting objectives. That is U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland, kicking the tires on running from President of the United States. We joined us in studio. We discussed that. And I want to get to that in just a little bit. But first, the looming midterm elections. And the Fox Power Rankings poll came out and it looked at where things sit. And on the Senate side, it was pretty much dead even, like right down the middle, a chance for a 50-50 split of the U.S. Senate. When you look at this point in time, what do you see? What do you see in regard to what potential pickups exist? And do you feel that Democrats will control the Senate, or is it kind of a 50-50 scenario right now? Well, I think it is a 50-50 scenario, and this will be decided on Election Day. But I think the momentum is in favor of the Democrats. Look, we are just talking about this illegal war. I mean, we have a president who campaigned saying he was going to end wars and focus on reducing prices. And he's done the opposite, right? We're in a war with Iran. It's dragging on. And prices are going up. I mean, the average gas prices just went over $4 a gallon. So this is playing out all over the country. I mean, I just was talking to someone who's running in Iowa, Josh Turrick. I mean, this is a big, big issue. It's a big issue in Ohio where Sherrod Brown's running for a election. In Texas, where James Talarico is running up in Alaska. And then, of course, there's North Carolina, there's Maine. There are many races. So there's clearly a path. to a Democratic majority in the United States Senate. And the President of the United States apparently doesn't really care that he's putting Republicans here on the hill at even greater political risk. It's going to come down to candidate quality, in my view, and what the candidates are talking about. And you look at 2022, and Republicans had a chance to have a lot of success, and they squandered that by putting candidates on the ballot that couldn't win, quite frankly. People like Herschel Walker in the state of Georgia. Now, looking at Maine and Troy Jackson, this upcoming weekend, he'll officially become the Democratic nominee.

It most recent poll, and in fact, the first poll came out from you and H, which had him up 49 to 46 margin of error over Susan Collins. She's underwater by 18%. Is there concern about that race that is that close at this point in time, given that he's kind of generic Democrat at this point? And how do you go about winning Maine? Well, I think Troy Jackson is going to be a very strong candidate. And what we're seeing in Maine is what we're seeing in many of these states, that people are just fed up with the status quo, right? They're being squeezed economically. They're dealing with incredible corruption coming out of the White House. And they want senators who are not going to be a rubber stamp for Donald Trump. And Senator Susan Collins... you know, as the saying goes down here, you know, she's against Trump when it doesn't count. when it comes, doesn't really count in terms of a vote. And so I think the people in Maine are going to want change, and that will be Troy Jackson. Democratic socialism has been a hot-button topic within the party, and there seems to be a split about, particularly the Democratic Socialist agenda, which came out, which would eliminate the United States Senate. Is that a concern for Democrats in that there are a lot of things that Democratic Socialists discuss that are not in line with how the American people or mainstream Democrats think? And Rocano was on the show earlier this week and said, you know, I'm a capitalist and I'm for the Constitution. Do you feel that Democrats like yourself need to plant that flag of what your party is? Or... do you become a big tent and say, hey, we can have these folks within our party as well that have these beliefs that may not be foundational Democratic Party beliefs? So look, I think it is very important for Democrats to stand on a clear platform that we are fighting for working people and we're fighting against very powerful special interests that are working to rig the economy against working people. When it comes to the DSA and others, you know, my view is, yes, we're a big tent party, and every candidate should say when they agree or when they disagree with the DSA. In fact, it actually gives our candidates an opportunity to... distinguish themselves when they're interested in doing from DSA. But, you know, my view is we are a big tent party. I do think that this sort of left-right sort of paradigm we've all lived with is outdated. I believe strongly that really the way politics needs to be organized right now is the folks at the very top, the very wealthy.

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