Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the Trump administration’s efforts to deport alleged gang members to El Salvador in a fiery exchange with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Tuesday.
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio knocked his former colleague for traveling to El Salvador to check on the well-being of a deported Maryland resident, Kilmar Abrego Garcia — who the administration initially admitted was mistakenly deported but now maintains is a member of a gang.
“In the case of El Salvador, absolutely, absolutely. We deported gang members, gang members, including the one you had a margarita with,” Rubio said during the hearing, a reference to the cocktail glasses that Salvadoran officials brought to the senator during his meeting with Abrego Garcia.
Van Hollen has said the Salvadoran government at first insisted on staging the meeting in front of a swimming pool, in an apparent effort to demonstrate Abrego Garcia was not being treated poorly. The senator has said he and his constituent did not drink from the glasses.
“And that guy is a human trafficker, and that guy is a gangbanger,” Rubio said, before Van Hollen cut in and began talking over the secretary.
The exchange came after Van Hollen dedicated his questioning time to railing against the secretary of State, saying he regretted voting to confirm Rubio.
Van Hollen is one of the few Democratic senators at the forefront of challenging the Trump administration’s foreign policy actions from deportations, student arrests and gutting of U.S. foreign assistance.
“I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for secretary of State,” Van Hollen said, after detailing a litany of criticisms.
Rubio countered that he viewed Van Hollen’s regret as confirmation that he was doing his job correctly.
Rubio was confirmed on the first day of the Trump administration with a 99-0 vote, the president’s only Cabinet member to receive a unanimous confirmation vote. Numerous Democratic senators, Rubio’s former Senate colleagues, have been outspoken in their criticisms of what they describe as his capitulation to Trump’s foreign policy decisions.
Laura Kelly contributed.
