At a press briefing on Friday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke about a claim by El Salvador's president that he had margaritas with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
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00:00Senator, Senator, Senator.
00:02Did you have a sense of his health, his well-being?
00:05Did you get any indication that he'd been abused at CECOM?
00:09I did not get that sense.
00:12Look, you never know, but I asked him if he was okay.
00:17He said yes.
00:18He said he has a blood pressure condition.
00:21He has seen a doctor.
00:22So, you know, on a very cursory examination, he appeared okay.
00:30Now, I will say, just to be clear, there was some negotiation about the terms of this meeting,
00:38and he was, we were kind of surrounded by video cameras.
00:44So I do want to say that that was the setting he was in.
00:49And I should also just say, you know, I mentioned the fake margarita scandal.
00:55They actually wanted to have the meeting by the side of the pool.
01:00Oh, God.
01:01Just, right.
01:03I mean, this is a guy who's been in CECOM.
01:05This is a guy who's been detained.
01:06They want to create this appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmark, which, of course, is a big fact.
01:13Senator, can I ask you, have you been having any conversations over the course of the last 48 hours?
01:18I know you've been busy in El Salvador with Trump administration officials.
01:22Was there any indication, maybe with the administration, that they were more flexible than what they were saying publicly?
01:29I have not.
01:30I did have a meeting with folks at the American Embassy there.
01:34And I really want to applaud them and every member of the Foreign Service and State Department in El Salvador and everywhere around the world.
01:42I co-chair the Foreign Service Caucus, and I have a deep appreciation for what they do.
01:50I asked them if they had received any instruction from Washington to help facilitate the release of the Kilmark.
01:58The answer was no.
01:59So it's very clear that the President and the Trump administration are blatantly, flagrantly, disagreeing with, defying the order from the Supreme Court.
02:20Senator, why don't you talk about who from the El Salvadorian government contacted you to facilitate this meeting?
02:28You mentioned that there were terms associated with the meeting.
02:31Were you told not to reveal any details from the meeting until you came back to the United States?
02:36And were you at all concerned for your safety in and around this meeting taking place or at any point during your time in El Salvador?
02:42So I was not concerned about my safety at this meeting.
02:47And I will say, you know, obviously there's a lot of uncertainty when you're approached by soldiers and have your car pulled over to the side of the road and told you can't go any further.
02:59But I will say that the soldiers acted professionally in their encounter with me.
03:05They had their orders.
03:07They implemented their orders.
03:09In terms of – I'm sorry, what was the –
03:11About the meeting, how the meeting came to be.
03:13Who contacted you?
03:14So the meeting, they reached out to say they don't meet.
03:20The Salvadorian government.
03:22Look, in El Salvador, everything happens because, okay, it says it can happen.
03:26And if you look at the video he sent out right afterwards with the fake margaritas, you can see that all of that was a setup.
03:35Okay?
03:36So that's why.
03:36And as to how I was notified, it was – their message was transmitted to me through the episode.
03:42Senator, you put the mic on.
03:44Senator.
03:44Senator.