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Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said it was a “mistake” for Democrats to support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu giving an address to Congress. “I believe it was, and I’ve expressed that view,” he said when asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” whether it was a mistake for Democrats to support the visit. “But the reality is, obviously, he came. So for those of us who thought it was a mistake to have him here, we expressed our views by not participating.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Sunday said he was glad to see President Biden threaten Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with consequences for wartime activity, but he called on the White House to outline details of what the repercussions would be. “I was glad to see the President, at least as reported out, finally say to [Prime Minister] Netanyahu, that if you don’t follow these, you know, my requests, that there will be consequences,” Van Hollen said in an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”

A Democratic senator blocked a resolution condemning antisemitic speech on college campuses proposed by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Thursday. The resolution, for which Hawley sought unanimous consent, comes as pro-Palestinian protests have erupted on college campuses after the deadly surprise attack on Israel carried out by Hamas terrorists that killed and wounded thousands in Israel Oct. 7. "Students at Ohio State praised the heroic resistance in Gaza," Hawley said on the floor. "Heroic - it's now heroic - to massacre Jews in cold blood. It's now heroic to try and carry out a genocide against Jewish people. "Students at the...

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) announced Sunday that he suffered a minor stroke over the weekend and is currently being hospitalized. The 63-year-old senator was delivering a speech in western Maryland over the weekend when he started to feel light-headed, he said. He sought medical attention following his speech and soon learned that he experienced a minor stroke.

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Wednesday slammed lawmakers and pundits who have disseminated disinformation about the novel coronavirus and the vaccines that are aimed at preventing people from becoming seriously ill or possibly even dying from that contagion. His remarks follow a Tuesday Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee hearing in which Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci sparred over NIH funding for controversial research related to COVID-19 that took place at a Chinese laboratory. During the hearing, Paul accused Fauci of lying and Fauci forcefully denied that claim. Paul...

Texas Republicans have come up with a congressional redistricting plan. The plan would, in the loaded words of the Washington Post, “siphon[] off thousands of [Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s] Black constituents and potentially forc[e] her into a primary election against her neighboring Black incumbent, Rep. Al Green.” This is a wonderful development. Jackson Lee, who once compared the Tea Party to the KKK, has no redeeming quality I’ve ever detected. Green seems like a good guy (once, after a congressional hearing, he invited a friend of mine with whose testimony he disagreed to lunch). However, his over-the-top demands that Donald...

Senate Democrats are set to unveil legislation that would tax energy companies responsible for major greenhouse gas emissions to pay for the costs of climate disasters. The Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act, sponsored by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), would require between 25 to 30 of the U.S. corporations responsible for the most greenhouse gas pollution to pay $300 billion into a fund over 10 years. The legislation would require companies to pay into the fund if they were responsible for at least .05 percent of global carbon dioxide and methane emissions between 2000 and 2019 based on data from...

Baltimore has its Highway to Nowhere, a road that gobbled up communities before the project was abandoned. Wilmington, Del., had neighborhoods wiped out by Interstate 95. Thousands of Detroit residents lost their homes — and surviving communities were scarred — by the construction of Interstate 375. The Overtown neighborhood in Miami, a majority-Black community, was “flattened,” also by I-95, forcing 10,000 people to leave their homes. In Nashville, bulldozers demolished 620 houses, 27 apartment buildings and six Black churches to make way for the I-40 expressway. All across the nation, American communities bear the scars of the headlong rush to...

Leftist Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) avoided answering tough questions from CNBC that underscored the nonsense behind her wealth tax proposal. CNBC Squawk Box co-anchor Joe Kernen played devil’s advocate in an attempt to expose the lack of logic behind Warren’s tax proposal. Kernen said to Warren during the March 2 edition of Squawk Box: “If you’re going to do two percent [tax] on 50 million [dollars], and then when you get up to a billion [dollars] and you’re going to three percent [tax], if we’ve made, if we’ve crossed the rubicon … why not make it truly progressive and do...

Elizabeth Warren floundered in her own party’s presidential primary last year and was disqualified for a cabinet position because taking one would have cost the Democrats control of the Senate. But that doesn’t mean that she’s faded from the scene entirely. As the Democrats struggle to keep their caucus together and push through some of their legislative priorities, Warren is back with the support of the progressive wing and pitching a big, new idea. Okay… it’s not actually a new idea at all. She’s been pushing it for a while. But now she thinks it might be possible. Yes, the...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren rolled out her plan Monday to slap a 2 per cent annual wealth tax on people whose net worth is over 50 million and up to $1 billion – setting the stage for debates over how to pay for Joe Biden's infrastructure and environmental proposals. Warren's plan is similar to what she advocated in her 2020 presidential campaign, where she lost to Biden, who did not come out for a wealth tax. The Massachusetts Democrat is joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and House Reps. Pramila Jaypal and Brendan Boyle.

Economists interviewed by FEE warn that Senator Warren's new proposal would backfire horribly... Senator Elizabeth Warren made a “wealth tax” on net worth one of the defining proposals of her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign. Now, the staunch progressive is using her new perch on the Senate Finance Committee to introduce a wealth tax at long last. Warren’s wealth tax would affect families with assets of $50 million and greater, Fox Business reports. It would start at a 2 percent annual tax, but add an additional 3 or 6 percent levy on those with assets totaling $1 billion and more. Other...

Five Democrat senators knelt during a moment of silence for George Floyd — a black man who recently died in police custody in Minneapolis — on Capitol Hill Friday afternoon. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Michael Bennet (D-CO) knelt during the tribute, which lasted for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time that video showed fired Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck before he died. Chauvin faces a second-degree murder charge over the incident.

Democrats on Sunday demanded answers about the killing of top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani as tensions mounted between the U.S. and Iran and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted that the U.S. had faced an imminent threat. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told ABC's "This Week" he worried that Trump's decision "will get us into what he calls another endless war in the Middle East." He called for Congress "to assert" its authority and prevent Trump from "either bumbling or impulsively getting us into a major war." Speaking with "Fox News Sunday," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said public...

Regarding your editorial “The Tax Increases to Come” (Nov. 13): Your concerns about our Millionaires Surtax Act focus on the very rich—but fail to consider everyone else. Our plan asks the top 0.2% to invest more to open the doors of the American dream to others. The U.S. is at a serious crossroads. The IMF, OECD and even the Journal’s reporting document how extreme inequality constrains economic growth. In fact, the Journal reports that wealth has more than doubled for the top 1% of households since 2003, while others mostly tread water. This gap limits educational opportunities, social mobility and...

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Thursday rolled out a proposal for a “millionaires surtax,” amid a growing interest from Democrats in increasing taxes on the wealthy. “This is a bill designed to address two major problems of public policy: the lack of revenue, and inequality,” Beyer said on a call with reporters. “It’s a laser-focused solution that requires those who benefited the most from the economy to contribute in a way they simply haven’t been asked to before.” The lawmakers’ bill, which is being co-sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), would create a 10-percentage...

Two Democratic lawmakers told a liberal Jewish conference on Monday they support the inclusion in the 2020 party platform of language on Israeli “occupation” of territories claimed by the Palestinians. One of them also argued that their party has not shifted on the Israeli-Palestinian issue; rather the Republicans have veered away from what he suggested used to be the “mainstream” position. Speaking at the J Street national conference gala dinner in Washington, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) expressed strong support for the idea – now being actively championed by J Street – of inserting opposition to “occupation” in the platform. “I...

President Trump is barreling toward a showdown with Congress over his decision to pull back U.S. troops in northern Syria despite widespread opposition. The announcement, which caught leadership and traditional GOP allies flatfooted, sparked a wave of condemnation, with Republicans calling it a “disaster in the making,” a “catastrophic mistake” and a “terrible decision.” Lawmakers are already weighing how to respond to Trump’s decision, setting the stage for a high-profile clash with Trump as soon as Congress returns from a two-week break on Monday. “Congress must and will act to limit the catastrophic impact of this decision,” said Rep. Liz...

Former Secretary of State and retired four-star U.S. Army General Colin Powell described foreign policy under President Donald Trump as “in shambles,” in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Sunday. “I was a Republican who was Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor. I was a Republican who worked for George Herbert Walker Bush, and worked for George W. Bush. I’m a moderate Republican who believes that we should have strong foreign policy, strong defense policy, that we have to look out for our people, and we ought to work hard to making sure we’re one country and one team,” Powell declared....

Graham said that he and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., plan to introduce “veto-proof” bipartisan sanctions that will call for Turkey’s suspension from NATO if it invades Syria and attacks Kurdish forces. “This decision to abandon our Kurdish allies and turn Syria over to Russia, Iran, & Turkey will put every radical Islamist on steroids,” Graham added. “Shot in the arm to the bad guys. Devastating for the good guys.” Nikki Haley, Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was unequivocal in her criticism. We must always have the backs of our allies, if we expect them to have...