On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Arena,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) responded to a question on why Senate Democrats won’t vote for a clean continuing resolution, by saying it’s “because we’ve seen what’s happened since day one of the administration,” “They have fired federal employees in the absence of a shutdown. In fact, they have less legal authority to fire federal employees in a shutdown than in the absence of a shutdown.” And federal workers “want some kind of assurance that this kind of illegal activity won’t continue. But Trump’s unwilling to do that.”
Van Hollen said, “I’ve now voted seven times in the Senate, and will vote an eighth time this evening, to keep the federal government open, but to do so without giving Donald Trump a total blank check to continue his illegal activities, which, from day one, have harmed federal employees, and to deal with the healthcare crisis that is about to be triggered because Republicans left a ticking time bomb on health care. And we would like to have a discussion with the president of the United States. He’s been working to try to bring an end to the conflict in the Middle East. But he is unwilling to address the situation right here at home and talk to Democrats about ending the Trump shutdown. And you mentioned the earlier record shutdown, remember, that was during Trump’s first administration. We’re now in the second Trump shutdown.”
Host Kasie Hunt then asked, “But let’s be realistic, Democrats could decide, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) could decide to vote to pass the CR, again. Why not do that?”
Van Hollen responded, “Well, because we’ve seen what’s happened since day one of the administration, right? They have fired federal employees in the absence of a shutdown. In fact, they have less legal authority to fire federal employees in a shutdown than in the absence of a shutdown. The judge will decide a preliminary motion in that case tomorrow. But they’ve had Elon Musk and his chainsaw since day one. I just met today, Kasie, with fired federal employees from much earlier in the administration. So, what I’m hearing from federal employees is they want some kind of assurance that this kind of illegal activity won’t continue. But Trump’s unwilling to do that. He’s willing to give the president of Argentina $20 billion of taxpayer money, but he’s not willing to work to end this shutdown.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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