Van Hollen: Chaos in the White House Taking Attention Away from Important Issues Like Health Care & the Economy

Interview

Today U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen joined CNN's Brianna Keilar to discuss President Trump's chaotic West Wing and his inability to focus on issues important to the American public. A transcript of the exchange is below, and video is available here:

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN: Sir, what is your reaction to this breaking news?

U.S. SENATOR CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Brianna, it's impossible being the Press Secretary or the Communications Director in this Administration, because the chaos starts at the very top. It starts with the President -- a President that tweets out stuff that pops into his mind, a President that invites reporters into the White House at a time when we're discussing health care, and talks to the New York Times about putting pressure on Mueller to drop his investigation. Goes after his own Attorney General. This is a President that cannot stick to the issues that the American public cares most about, which are health care, the economy, and those issues. We were going to be talking about health care, and this is a perfect example of the chaos at the White House taking attention off of things important to the country.

KEILAR: Do you think this is just the usual chaos, or does this to you signify something different about the environment right now inside the West Wing?

VAN HOLLEN: Clearly there's not only a chaotic environment, but there seems to also be a whole lot of infighting because a lot of people strongly objected to this appointment. That only compounds the natural chaotic DNA of this Administration, because we know week to week, when people want to focus on one thing, all of a sudden they're over the rails talking about something else.

So, look, in the Senate, we're supposedly taking up this health care proposal. All of them have been rotten so far. The President begged Senators to get on with that bill, and here we are where he's again changing message, changing focus away from things the public cares about. This seems to be something that is very much a part of this President, a part of this Administration, but I would say this latest development has exposed the infighting even more than before.

KEILAR: Do you think that as we see a new Communications Director come in, that that could spell something different for the White House? Or are you just expecting more of the same since Scaramucci is such a loyalist to the President?

VAN HOLLEN: It's hard to see anything different -- again, because you've got a President of the United States who at all hours of the day or night just tweets out whatever pops into his head, and seems to be really obsessed with the Russia investigation. We've got all of these big issues that we're looking at as a country, whether it's the health care issue or the economy. But he seems very obsessed with Robert Mueller and the FBI investigation. Which I think is leading a lot of people to ask, what is it that they are trying to hide here? Why is he so determined to sabotage that investigation, rather than come clean? And as long as that's top of mind for the President, then it's going to be really hard for the Administration to move on. They should just cooperate with the investigation, come clean, and focus on issues that are important to the country.

KEILAR: Senator Chris Van Hollen, thank you so much for joining us.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.

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