MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Chris Van Hollen
Interview
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HAYES: The reality remains exactly the same. It is Donald Trump shut down. He shut down the government. The House has passed a bill that could probably right now get 70 votes in the Senate and open up the government. Trump is refusing to sign it. He`s refusing to allow it to come for a vote in the Senate because apparently he`s Mitch McConnell`s boss and Dems are now ratcheting up the pressure.
More and more Democratic senators are saying they will not vote for any bill until the government is reopened. Joining me now, the senator who first articulated that strategy Chris Van Hollen, Democrat from Maryland.
Senator, you tweeted about this about how -- you were basically of the opinion that the Senate should not be doing its normal business going about other pieces of legislation for consideration until the government opens. Why and what does that mean for your other colleagues? Are they joining you?
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Well, Chris, we need to make a strong statement. This is not business as usual and so tomorrow we should make it clear that the first order of business should be voting on the two house measures that have already been passed, that have already been supported in various ways in the Senate including by Republican senators, and that would reopen the government.
We need to make it clear that while this is the Trump shutdown, it`s being enabled by the fact that Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans are trying to hide out. They`ve been essentially AWOL. They haven`t been to the White House and they should not be essentially contracting out their votes as Senate Republicans to Donald Trump. And they need to join us in voting for measures to open the government.
And so tomorrow, that`s what we will focus on. And then the caucus will have to decide how to proceed but overall we`re making the clear statement that it cannot be business as usual.
HAYES: Wait. But you`re only making that statement if you get 240 votes to block motions to proceed? Because if you don`t have that, then Mitch McConnell`s got about like 9,000 judges that are just like coming out of every pocket in this suit that he`s going to try to ram through. So are you going to get enough your colleagues to basically block motions to proceed because that really means something?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, as you know, motion to proceed on a legislation requires 60 votes so you can block it with 40. A motion to proceed on judges does not require 60 votes, that requires 50. But we`re going to start by saying tomorrow that SB-1, Senate Bill 1 should be a bill to reopen the government. It should be a vote on the House bills. After all, the House of Representatives, the new Democratic majority, they made it a priority to first focus on reopening the government, and we think that`s what we should do.
So you`re right tomorrow, the hope will be and there`s growing support and momentum, I think we can do it, would be to say Senate Bill 1 needs to be the House bill`s to reopen the government. Let`s vote on that first and send a very strong signal that it should not be business as usual. But the caucus will have to decide how to proceed. But I think there`s strong consensus that we need to send that message tomorrow.
HAYES: Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that he will be voting that way. He`s going to vote against motions to proceed on things that are not reopening the government. I saw Brian Schatz of Hawaii, a bunch of other people, I don`t know the whip count, but what is the status of negotiations? It was totally bizarre to me and tell me if I`m wrong, that the Vice President is States was negotiating with Democratic staff this weekend? Is that weird?
VAN HOLLEN: It`s totally weird. And it`s weird in two ways. One, they need to be negotiating with members. Secondly, you need to have the Republican Senate staff there as well. And this is -- this is the main point, Chris. We need to turn up the heat on a lot of these purple state Republican senators, a lot of them who were up in 2020. And they are sort of hiding out right now just like McConnell is not showing up at the White House or even sending some staff.
HAYES: You can`t find him. I haven`t seen the guy`s face.
VAN HOLLEN: Exactly. And look, you know what happened, right? I mean he got a strong signal from the White House before Christmas that President Trump would support the measure to keep the government funded until February 8th, and then as you indicated you had all the right-wing you know, talk show hosts go the other way and pull the rug out from under the Vice President and others.
And so that`s obviously another huge problem, right? Who do you have to negotiate with. And that`s a -- that`s a challenge. But I think the main thing is we do need to make sure Senator McConnell and Senate Republicans have to be part of the solution and they can`t just go run away.
HAYES: OK, let me -- I`m going to give you a sentence with a blank and ask if you can fill in the blank because I can`t. The President of United States wants $5.6 or $5.7 billion dollars appropriated for blank? What is the answer to the question? What is the thing there?
VAN HOLLEN: And that`s just it. They have not specified it. Look, as you know, long before Donald Trump was president, we had a broad strategy for border security. The issue here has never been about having secure borders. We need secure borders and we`ve always achieved border security through a combination of having Border Patrol agents, technology to detect you know, people coming across the border, and a range of other options including barriers in some places especially places where there are lots of people.
And what Donald Trump has came in last year and we got is $1.3 million not for a wall but for some of this border security. And the bill that passed the House just before Christmas would have continued that same level of funding. And so they cannot really answer that question at this point in time. And all they`re doing is creating a lot of pain for people throughout the country who increasingly are not getting services.
I met today with a whole bunch of federal employees who are not getting paid, who are now really worried about making ends meet and paying their bills. And this is all for as you said a metaphor, this delusion that President Trump has.
HAYES: Yes. We -- I talked to -- I was hearing about a friend of mine whose assistant U.S. attorney you know, who`s doing the work every day, who`s says two paychecks is one thing, then three paychecks, like folks are
going to be squeezed here.
VAN HOLLEN: Look, I mean, it`s -- we`re into 17 days and it looks like it could go on for a long time because you know, President Trump said he was going to be proud to shut down the government, pointing fingers now but this is this is now very intentional even though as you indicate they really don`t know what they want and they don`t know the way out. And that`s why this is scary and that`s why we need Senate Republicans to really be part of the solution and pass those House bills.
HAYES: They should just get together and tell them the wall got built. Senator Chris Van Hollen, thank you very much.
VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.
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