MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Chris Van Hollen
Interview
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HAYES: So Republicans are now so trapped by how manifestly dumb this whole thing is that they`re begging Donald Trump to do something even dumber. Today, that very same Lindsey Graham tweeting again "Mr. President, declared national emergency now. Build a wall now." We`ve entered a frankly pathetic phase in which Republicans are clamoring to give away their power in Congress to the President because they cannot admit that the emperor has no clothes.
Joining me now Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat from Maryland. His bill to provide retroactive pay for federal workers passed yesterday in the Senate and today in the House. First let`s start with that. Senator, does that mean that goes the President`s desk now to be signed?
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: It does, Chris. This was a bill that Senator Cardin and I introduced in the Senate. It passed the Senate yesterday. It passed the House today. It`s on the way to the President`s desk. Now, here`s the catcher. You know, Senator McConnell said that before we passed this in the Senate, President Trump said he would sign it. But of course, that`s exactly what the President`s people told Mitch McConnell a number of weeks ago about the bill to extend the continuing resolution through February 8th.
So let`s hope the President signs it. This is the shameful now, you know, milestone where we`re about to break the largest, longest shutdown in U.S. history. And as you said, I saw a lot of these pay stubs -- pay stubs from federal employees today with big zeros on them. The bills they`re getting don`t have zeros, their bills for mortgages and all sorts of other payments that are due.
So I hope the President will sign it. It will provide at least some certainty in a very difficult time for so many people.
HAYES: So where are things now? My understanding is the House has passed a series of bills all week that they`re sitting there. There`s some to open a few departments, there`s some to open the whole government except for DHS, there`s some just to open the IRS so it could deal with refunds. And those are all just sitting on Mitch McConnell`s desk metaphorically?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, that`s exactly right. And you know, Senator McConnell has essentially been AWOL throughout this whole discussion. He knows that a shutdown is a really stupid idea. He knows it`s a waste of taxpayer money. He knows it`s hurting millions of Americans and yet he refuses to hold a vote on the two bills that the House passed more than a week ago now that would reopen the government.
And as you know those bills were picked by the House because Senate Republicans had already supported them in different ways, right? One by a voice vote, the other by a vote of 93 to seven, the other in the Appropriations Committee on a bipartisan basis. And so you know, right now McConnell`s got the obvious question, why aren`t you passing bills that you`ve already supported and the answer is he wants to do the President`s bidding.
HAYES: I saw a conservative journalist, Byron York made this point today. I wanted to get you to respond to it. He basically said, look, if you look at the package of what the White House is proposing now, 5.6 -- 5.7 billion, some of it is fencing, some of its extra beds at the border, some of it is technology, some of it is more staff. The actual details aren`t really the wall, so to speak, whether the President calls it that. And in another context, this would be perfectly uncontroversial and bipartisan and Democrats are just not doing it because they hate the President." What do you say to that?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, no. That is -- that`s not the case. The first thing is that we want to reopen the government. We don`t think that any President should be holding the country and 800,000 federal employees hostage for any kind of demand. We should be opening the government and then we can discuss the best approach to border security. And we`ve always said we`re happy to have that conversation.
I should point out, Chris, in the Senate Appropriations Committee, we provided the level of funding the President actually asked for in his budget this year which was $1.6 billion.
HAYES: Wait. This is an important point. Presidents submit the budget to Congress, correct?
VAN HOLLEN: That`s correct.
HAYES: OK. That budget which is made by Mick Mulvaney over at ONB when consultations presumably with the President, although really who knows, in the White House, he comes to you guys and says this is what my priority are, this is what I want, and they asked for 1.6 building -- 1.6 billion for border security.
VAN HOLLEN: Exactly right.
HAYES: They did not ask for $5.6 billion to build a wall?
VAN HOLLEN: No. That`s exactly right. And this point has been overlooked because I guess the President`s folks wanted ignored because he totally changed his own budget. Now, that was passed in the Senate Appropriations Committee. We did add some language that the money for walls and barriers should be restricted to existing barriers.
HAYES: Right.
VAN HOLLEN: And that, Chris, was supported by the Republican Senators on the Appropriations Committee.
HAYES: I just think this is key for people understand because it has gotten lost. Like there is an appropriations process on all kinds of stuff and lots of it non-controversial, right? The White House says this number people say, this number a lot of stuff, you fight over some stuff you agree on, on this issue they just didn`t actually come and say -- they didn`t start with an early asking we need $5.6 billion approved for the wall until this last second turn around at the behest of Ann Coulter?
VAN HOLLEN: No. But that`s exactly right. They asked for a $1.6 billion. And now at the very last minute in December, they came back with this request and it is also important to point out, Chris, that it really, in the end, is, of course, $30 billion because you know, what the President will do is threaten to shut down the government every year until he gets the $30 billion right?
HAYES: Well, right. Well, the other thing is you don`t just fund a capital investment for one year no matter what you`re doing. Like you don`t do a highway for one year and then just stop building it.
VAN HOLLEN: Exactly.
HAYES: OK. So then, what`s the way out -- I mean, I am watching this from afar and it just looks screwed. I just don`t understand. Like he has clearly backed them into this alleyway, there`s no way out, they`re desperate to extricate him somehow. Someone is going to send in a helicopter which I guess is the national emergency to like pluck them out of this situation but -- or not. And the government is closed for another month.
VAN HOLLEN: Yes, look, what I`ve been focused on is what`s within our power right now. And what`s within our power is to put more pressure on Mitch McConnell and Republican Senators to do their -- to play their role, to do -- take their responsibilities as a separate co-equal branch of government and pass these bills that they`ve already supported.
Now, Mitch McConnell can keep saying that the President doesn`t support it, but my goodness, I think a lot of our Republican Senators are going to feel the heat at home. We`ve already got four or five Republican Senators who publicly said they agree that we got to reopen the government first.
We will keep asking for unanimous consent to bring up those bills. We said it yesterday, McConnell shut it down but that`s going to get harder and harder, Chris, as with these stories pour in from around the country.
HAYES: All right, Senator Chris Van Hollen, thank you very much.
VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.
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