"That's [Van Holland's] grand cause for heroism? That's the hill he wants to die on? Something tells me this is not going to be the big ticket to celebrity for him that he thought it was going to be."
"Sen. Chris van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, fancied himself a hero.
So, to Get Trump after his repatriation of a "Maryland man" to his native El Salvador, van Hollen made grand plans to fly down to the Central American nation and like a conquering hero, bring Kilmar Abrego-Garcia back from a Salvadoran prison where Trump deported him last month, to the U.S. like a trophy. He would preen for the cameras. He talk the president of El Salvador into releasing him from the high-security CECOT prison owing to the Trump administration errantly missing the stay of deportation order some judge had granted him in 2019, owing to his upstanding membership in MS-13 which endangered him with the Barrio 18 gang in El Salvador, following his final deportation order. Never mind that the judicial rationale for the stay was obsolete because the gang has since been broken up in El Salvador, though ironically, he may still have things to fear from rival gangs here where blue cities continue to allow gang activity to flourish.
But this was about 'narrative' and van Hollen had a live one. He was all in with the media narrative about Abrego-Garcia being another George Floyd, cut down by the Trump administration, a loving father, a family man, a sheet metal worker, and a union member, just doing what millions of Americans are doing, living their best lives, only to be persecuted by the heartless and dictatorial Trump administration.
Van Hollen got nowhere with the Salvadoran president, who has a country to run, and has already stated that he won't let a terrorist roam free inside his well-run country to endanger his citizens. He's a very popular president there for that.
Then the real embarrassment happened.
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