Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) called President Donald Trump a “lawless president,” claiming he had “been illegally withholding funds.”
Host Jake Tapper said, “So President Trump’s going to meet with congressional leaders at the White House tomorrow. You just heard Speaker Mike Johnson effectively saying, ‘There’s really nothing that we’re going to offer them.’ If that is the case and the government funding bill is just this clean CR that they’re talking about, are you going to vote no?”
Van Hollen said, “Well, Jake, it’s good to see the president finally get off the golf course and decide to talk and avoid the government shutdown. He’s been taking us to, and he’s been much more focused, as we all know, on keeping the Epstein files locked up than keeping the government open. Look, the president wants a blank check. This is a lawless president. He’s been illegally withholding funds. He promised on day one he was going to bring down prices. They’ve gone up.”
“What we’re saying is that we should turn off this ticking time bomb, which Republicans left in place,” he continued. “That’s going to create a huge spike in health care premiums for about 20 million Americans. And until now, the president has said, nope, he’d rather shut down the government than prevent those health care costs from spiking. I’m glad we’re finally talking. We’ll see what happens.”
Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN
