Senator Chris Van Hollen, a high-profile critic of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, said he is “kicking the tires” on a 2028 presidential bid and is pushing for “dramatic change” in Washington.
“If you are asking me whether I think Democrats need to shake things up, you bet I do,” Van Hollen said on the On NOTUS podcast. “It’s pretty clear that operating from within the confines of the halls of Congress is not a successful recipe for actually getting change.”
Van Hollen, a former member of House Democratic leadership, said his experience meeting with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man living in Maryland who was deported to El Salvador, changed his perspective on Washington’s conventional wisdom.
“That was a moment when it was clear that the inside conventional wisdom was just dead wrong,” Van Hollen said. “I don’t think it’s gonna be sufficient to kind of paint inside the lines to get the kind of dramatic change that we need. We need to shake things up.”
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A long critic of U.S. policy in the Middle East, Van Hollen said plausible Democratic presidential candidates must be prepared to push back against the Israeli government.
“Any credible Democratic presidential candidate has to be willing to hold the government of Israel accountable when it is violating human rights, and violating international law and violating U.S. interests,” Van Hollen said.
Additionally, Van Hollen called for Democrats to reject funding from the powerful pro-Israel advocacy group AIPAC.
“What AIPAC demands of candidates it supports is unconditional support for the actions of the government of Israel,” Van Hollen said. “Unconditional taxpayer support of the government of Israel is something nobody should sign up for in my view.”
Van Hollen called for the U.S. to use its leverage to push for a two-state solution and end human rights abuses, and called out the Trump and Biden administrations for falling short.
“The Trump administration has essentially thrown out the idea that the U.S. should have a foreign policy based on human rights and the rule of law,” Van Hollen said. “But the Biden administration believed that, but they did not do enough, not nearly enough to back up their words with deeds and action.”
Van Hollen, who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, added that any former Biden and Obama foreign policy staffers must acknowledge their “mistakes” if they want a role in a future Democratic White House.
Van Hollen echoed other Democratic senators on Trump’s tentative peace deal with Iran, expressing relief that the conflict has stopped.
“This is a war that should never have been started,” Van Hollen said. “Every day that it’s gone on is a day the United States is worse off. When you’re digging a hole, you should just stop digging.”
Van Hollen reiterated his earlier assertion that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked Trump into military action.
“Bibi Netanyahu said he had been waiting 40 years to find a U.S. president to do this with, and he found one in President Trump,” Van Hollen said. “No one else was stupid enough to jump into a war against Iran.”
Looking forward, Van Hollen said the United States should take a lesson from Trump on the campaign trail and avoid military conflict without an imminent threat.
“No. 1, you shouldn’t start wars,” Van Hollen said. “No. 2, you better have a freaking plan before you jump into something, and clearly they didn’t have that.”
On NOTUS is a weekly podcast where NOTUS reporters talk to lawmakers. You can download or listen here.
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