MARGARET BRENNAN: Speaking of responsibility, I'm sure you've been tracking all the headlines and the conversation about President Biden and what happened with that debriefing of him by the Special Counsel Hur during that Justice Department investigation of his mishandling of classified information. No charges were brought, but the audio of that was obtained by Axios, and it- you hear the president halting at times. Remember Hur was the one who said President Biden was a sympathetic, well meaning, elderly man with a poor memory, and Democrats really pushed back at the time at that saying that sounded very political. In hindsight, do you think Democrats were too willing to look the other way?
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN : Well, hindsight is 20/20. We know a lot more now than we knew then. I can just say personally, I had limited interactions with President Biden at the time. He came to the Key Bridge in Maryland when it collapsed, and we had a good conversation. So hindsight is 20/20. Obviously, if we could redo this tape and play it over again, we would do things differently.
BRENNAN: Do you feel like you have to explain and defend that now? I mean, there was a piece in The Washington Post from Dan Balz who said Democrats are either- were either covering up then or covering their behinds now.
VAN HOLLEN : No- well- look- I mean, I think we can acknowledge that this was a- people overlooked a serious problem or were just not aware.
BRENNAN: Willingly?
VAN HOLLEN : Well, I don't- I can only speak for myself. I didn't- I wasn't aware of this, but we are focused on the future right now. I mean, right- right now we have the Republican tax plan, which is a giveaway to the rich. We have- you know, we didn't talk about it, but Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East, my view, is the overall narrative here was selling out US national interests for the private gain of his family business. He essentially gave away the crown jewels of American AI and semiconductor technology to the Gulf in exchange, in exchange, it looks like, for a $2 billion investment in the Trump family stablecoin venture.
BRENNAN: Another topic. But on this point, I hear you want to look forward. I do too. But don't Democrats have to reckon with this and say to the public that the answer to that question- you know?
VAN HOLLEN : I think we've all acknowledged that if we had the benefit of hindsight, we would have done things differently. I don't know if all of us have. I recognize that, but at this point, it seems to me, the American people are much more interested in the conversation as to the future of our country and the damage that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are doing every day.
BRENNAN: Senator Van Hollen, thank you for your time today.
VAN HOLLEN: Good to be with you.
BRENNAN: We’ll be back in a moment.
