‘Margarita-gate’: Sen. Chris Van Hollen slams efforts to stage optics of meeting with Abrego Garcia
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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., set out to El Salvador this week to find Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man at the center of an erroneous deportation, and get answers about his condition.
While he was relieved to get a chance to meet the Abrego Garcia face to face on Thursday, the senator slammed El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and President Donald Trump for what he said was a setup to defame him and the deportee.
Van Hollen said Friday that what he called “margarita-gate” was manufactured by Bukele and his officials after they posted a photo of his meeting with Abrego Garcia at a table with what appeared to be filled margarita glasses.
The senator said those glasses were put on the table partway during the meeting by El Salvador officials and that neither he nor the deportee touched the drinks.
“Everything happens because Bukele says it could happen. And if you look at the video you sent out right afterwards with the fake margaritas, you can see that all of that was a setup,” Van Hollen told reporters.
The senator poked holes in the story that was being spread by Bukele’s and Trump’s allies and said the entire meeting was suspect from the beginning.
After being denied access to CECOT, the super prison that the government originally said was holding Abrego Garcia, Van Hollen said he was ready to fly back to the U.S. Thursday but got a message that the deportee was available to meet.
The El Salvador government tried to have the meeting poolside, but the senator said he had them take it indoors in a dining area. During the meeting, Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia had glasses of water and a coffee cup on their tables, which appeared in a photo posted by the senator.
The senator said that at one point during the hourlong meeting, officials put glasses on the table that appeared to have liquid inside with salt or sugar rims on top. Van Hollen said he had no idea what the liquid was.
The glass in front of Abrego Garcia had less liquid than the other glass, according to Van Hollen.
“They tried to make it look like, I assume, that he drank out of it,” the senator said.
Van Hollen said the insinuations about the margarita glasses don’t hold up under scrutiny.
“They made a mistake,” he said of the government officials. “If you sip out of one of those glasses, some of whatever it was, salt or sugar, would disappear. You would see a gap. There’s no gap. No one drank anything.”
El Salvador’s government has not commented on the senator’s claim.
Trump was asked about the photo of the meetings with the glasses earlier Friday and criticized Van Hollen as “fake” and repeated disputed claims that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 member.
“They’re all fake, and they have no interest in that prisoner. That prisoner’s record is unbelievably bad,” Trump said before listing crimes of which other MS-13 members have been convicted.
None of the allegations made about Abrego Garcia’s being part of MS-13 have been made in court documents. Abrego Garcia’s family and attorneys have denied the gang allegations.
Van Hollen stressed that Trump is trying to divert attention from the fact that the U.S. government is not complying with the Supreme Court’s unanimous order that it facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. by bringing up gang violence.
“I mean, this is a guy who’s been in CECOT. This guy has been detained. They want to create this appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmar, which, of course, is a big fat lie,” he said.
The senator added that the case goes beyond Abrego Garcia.
“This case is not about just one man. It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everyone who resides in the United States of America,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on the Senate to keep the United States’ tariffs on Canada in place — hours before Democrats in the upper chamber could potentially force a vote aimed at blocking the president from imposing tariffs on the ally country.
Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine, Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner are leading the effort to end the international emergency — which Kaine has called a “made up emergency” — that Trump has declared against Canada, thereby shunting his administration’s authority to unilaterally impose tariffs. Trump has derived his authority to impose tariffs by declaring a national emergency caused by the flow of fentanyl and undocumented migration from Canada, Mexico and China. But Democrats are now challenging that emergency status.
“President Trump is saying that there is an emergency with Canada. Canada is a friend not an adversary. Canada is a sovereign nation not a 51st state,” Kaine said on Tuesday.
It comes just one day before Trump’s tariffs on Canada are expected to go into effect as part of “Liberation Day” — the president’s plans to roll out sweeping tariffs that he has said will impact “all countries.”
On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed to respond with retaliatory tariffs if Trump slaps additional levies on Canadian goods as part of Wednesday’s expected tariff announcement.
Trump said in a social media post that the U.S. is “making progress to end this terrible Fentanyl Crisis” that he claims is coming from Canada, and said that “Republicans in the Senate MUST vote to keep the National Emergency in place, so we can finish the job, and end the scourge.”
During a press conference on Tuesday, Democrats argued that Trump is falsely imposing an emergency in order to give cover for the tariffs with hopes of raising revenue to pay for his tax cut plan. That’s why they say this vote is so important.
Trump criticized Kaine for his role in the effort to block tariffs.
“Don’t let the Democrats have a Victory. It would be devastating for the Republican Party and, far more importantly, for the United States,” Trump wrote.
Unlike most legislation in the Senate, this resolution will only need a simple majority of votes to pass, and it very likely may. Only a handful of Republicans would be needed to hit that threshold.
But there is nothing compelling the House, controlled by Republicans, to take up the legislation, and it’s almost certain that House Speaker Mike Johnson would stay far away from the resolution.
The Senate vote could get pushed to Wednesday as Sen. Cory Booker continues a filibuster he started at 7 p.m. Monday night. Booker is protesting against the national “crisis” he said Trump and Elon Musk created.
A number of Republicans have expressed skepticism about Canadian tariffs and now find themselves in a difficult place of having to choose whether to block Trump’s authority or cast a vote to try to forestall the tariffs.
Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that he’s unsure whether they’ll be able to defeat the resolution.
“We’ll see,” he said. “Obviously, as you know, and I’m among these, there is concerns about tariffs on Canada and, you know, what the ultimate objective is. If it’s about fentanyl and stopping the drug trade, drug war, that’s an issue obviously that there is a lot of interest. Obviously we want to give the president as much latitude as possible to deal with specific problems like that, but as you know, I’m in a very different place when it comes to across-the-board tariffs and Canada.”
Thune said on Tuesday that he hopes “we’ll have the votes.”
“The president declared the emergency to deal with the issue of fentanyl — flow of fentanyl into this country, not only from our southern border, but also from our north. That’s what the emergency declaration is about. And what this would do is undo that,” he said. “I think the president needs to have tools at his disposal to deal with what I think are national emergencies. And certainly, you know, the tens of thousands of people that are killed in this country every year, because fentanyl represents that. So I hope we’ll have the votes.”
(WASHINGTON) — Do parents of public school children have a constitutional right to opt-out their kids from classroom lessons involving storybooks that feature LGBTQ themes or characters?
The Supreme Court will tackle that question Tuesday in a closely watched First Amendment case that comes as the Trump administration moves to empower parents and root out diversity and inclusion initiatives across the U.S. education system.
A group of parents, including Muslims, Orthodox Ukrainians, Christians and Jews from Montgomery County, Maryland, claim constitutional protections for religious exercise mean they must have an opportunity to exempt their children from any instruction on gender or sexuality that may be counter to teachings of faith.
“We’re under no illusion, they’ll learn about these things, but in the formative years, what ultimately we could not agree with [Montgomery County Public Schools], is where inclusion stopped and indoctrination started,” said Wael Elkoshairi, who is homeschooling his fourth-grade daughter because he says the books infringe on his Muslim faith.
The school board, made up of locally elected representatives, says the purpose of education is to expose children to a broad mix of people and ideas — and that the Constitution does not guarantee students the right to skip lessons inconsistent with their beliefs.
Lower courts sided with the board. The justices will now take a closer look at whether the county’s refusal to grant an opt-out to parents illegally burdens their religious rights.
“The case is a good illustration of the fact that public schools are at ground zero in the culture wars,” said Jim Walsh, a Texas lawyer who represents school boards and is a member of the National School Attorneys Association.
“We all want the school to reflect our values, but we don’t agree on our values. And certainly issues about same-sex marriage, the rights of lesbians and gays, are right at the center of that,” he said.
Starting in 2022, Montgomery County — one of the most diverse counties in the country — introduced a series of LGBTQ-themed storybooks for reading in elementary school classrooms under a statewide mandate to be more inclusive of the diversity of families and children attending the schools.
The local school board, which closely consulted with educators in approving the curriculum, maintains that the books do not take a side on issues of gender or sexuality and that teachers are instructed not to teach or enforce any particular view.
Among the illustrated titles is “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” by Sarah Brannen, about a young girl who worries her close relationship with a beloved uncle will change after he marries his male fiance. “Prince & Knight” by Daniel Haack presents a fairy-tale narrative about a blossoming romance between the main characters after a dramatic rescue from a dragon.
“Nothing in my book is any different than most fairy tales that have some sort of romance at the center of it,” said Haack. “Nothing different than “Sleeping Beauty” or “Cinderella” or any of those.”
In the book “Intersection Allies,” a group of three sociologist authors set out to simplify complex ideas about identity, including what it means to be nonbinary.
“We wrote this to affirm kids who are left out of the stories that we often tell,” said LaToya Council, one of the authors. “This book is not saying that, you know, your child has to choose to be transgender. It’s saying respect someone who is trans and their ability to seek spaces that are comfortable for them.”
Chelsea Johnson, another of the book’s authors, insisted nothing in the text asks anyone to change their beliefs. “Schools and parents and communities are partners with each other and helping kids make sense of the world and we don’t have to opt our kids out to do that.”
Montgomery County guidelines advise educators to make the storybooks available for students to read on their own, to read aloud, or share in reading groups. Teachers are instructed not to advance a particular viewpoint about sexuality or gender with respect to the characters.
At first, during the 2022-2023 school year, the board allowed parents to opt-out their kids from any lessons involving the books, but it later changed course, denying any opt-outs.
“When I was in school, I was opted-out of sex ed because I wasn’t ready, and my parents didn’t feel it was appropriate for the teachers to talk about it, and it didn’t hurt anyone,” said Billy Moges, a mother of three and devout Christian, who pulled her kids from Montgomery County schools because of the books.
“The problem with some of these books, though, as well, is they were love stories, so it was not just exposure to LGBTQ characters. These were love stories,” said Elkoshairi.
School officials explained in court documents that administering an opt-out program became too cumbersome to manage, led to higher rates of student absenteeism, and was ultimately inconsistent with an educational mission of supporting all types of families.
“These books are representing the community that is surrounding these children,” said Emily McGowan, who mothers second- and sixth-graders with her wife Sharon in Montgomery County. “You cannot deny that we exist. We live here, our kids go to school here.”
The McGowans say opt-outs over LGBTQ stories harm the children whose family lives are represented in the books.
“The idea that 10 of their classmates get to get up and walk out because there’s two mommies in this book — What is the message that’s sent to our kid who has two mommies?” said Sharon McGowan. “That something is so offensive about this that they get to walk out and maybe they even get to go to the playground and have extra play time?”
Nearly every state gives parents the ability to opt-out their children from sex education classes but opt-outs for LGBTQ issues vary widely by community and are often decided by board members elected by local parents, Walsh said.
“We can all understand parents having strong feelings about when and how is my child going to be taught about sexual issues. So, there are more opt-outs about this than anything else. But if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs in this case, it’s not gonna stop with just sex and gender issues. It will cover a wide variety of things that parents may have objections to,” he said.
The case comes as the Trump administration has vowed to give more control over education to local leaders and communities. But even in places where school boards are choosing to prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion in their curriculum — like Montgomery County — some conservatives are still pushing to override policies.
“The school board has decided to disrupt the thinking of their children on an area that has long been understood as going to the core of parental authority for their children, on sex and gender,” said Will Haun, a senior attorney at Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the plaintiffs before the Supreme Court. “In that area, the First Amendment absolutely protects the parents.”
“The democratic process is important, and that’s where we debate curriculum,” Haun added, “but here we’re talking about restoring an opt-out right, which is not a challenge to the curriculum.”
Wael Elkoshairi insists he harbors no ill will toward LGBTQ families and says he isn’t calling for a ban on any books. But he hopes the high court — as a matter of faith — will give parents greater control.
“When people have differences of opinion on certain things, accommodations work well to relieve everybody, and we move on,” Elkosairi said.
As for the McGowans, they are hoping the court’s conservative majority holds the line.
“The fact that the Court took the case at all — I don’t have reason to believe that they took the case to affirm the importance of inclusion in the public schools,” said Sharon McGowan. “If harm is done by their decision, we will figure out what we need to do at a personal and a community level to mitigate that harm.”
A decision in the case is expected by the end of June.
(TORONTO) — Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s tariffs against Canada are the “craziest idea.”
The premier spoke with ABC News Live to share his reaction to Trump slapping a 25% tariff on goods coming from Canada on Tuesday, which Ford said “caught everyone off guard.”
Ford first responded to the tariffs on Tuesday, saying he will implement a 25% export tax on electricity powering homes in the United States and will remove American liquor and beer off Canadian shelves.
“That’s the last thing I want to do. I want to put more alcohol on the shelves. I want to give you more electricity. I want to do everything I can to have a great relationship with our closest friends that we absolutely love,” Ford told ABC News.
Ford said on Tuesday his government would end a contract with Elon Musk-owned satellite internet service Starlink and shut off power to the U.S., impacting millions on homes in Minnesota, Michigan and New York.
“It’s not the people of America, it’s not the elected officials, it’s one person that has caused this issue, and that was President Trump,” Ford said. “We have to retaliate — as much as we don’t want to — to our closest friends and allies.”
Ontario sends a “tremendous amount of electricity” to the United States, Ford said, adding he must “protect our country” after Trump’s attacks on their economy.
“We look at the U.S. as a family member,” Ford told ABC News. “It’s like we’re their little brother or little sister and it’s been going on for 200 years. Now we have to protect our country against our great ally.”
Ford said he met with the U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday, calling him a “super bright individual.” Ford told Lutnick to not “attack your closest friend and ally,” and that he wants to have a “fair trade agreement.”
“We help each other,” Ford said. “We send lumber, aluminum, steel and high-grade nickel to keep your manufacturing going. Along with electricity and oil, the list just keeps going on and on. That’s the way it’s been for over a century. We want to continue doing that.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also spoke out against the tariff decision on Tuesday, calling it a “dumb” policy that does not “make sense.”
During Trump’s joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, he said he would implement additional reciprocal tariffs starting in April, a decision that Ford said will “hurt Canadians and Americans” and will cause inflation on both sides of the country.
“You’ll see plants close in the U.S., possibly assembly lines in the auto sector will close in the next five days, and for what reason? I do not understand, I think it’s the craziest idea someone could ever come up with,” Ford said.
Ford reaffirmed his love for Ontario’s American neighbors, calling them the “best in the world,” and that this retaliation to the tariffs is not directed toward them.
On Feb. 27, Trump alleged fentanyl had continued to enter the U.S. through Mexico and Canada despite agreements reached last month to address the issue. However, only 1% of the fentanyl confiscated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection actually enter through the Canadian border.
“We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“They misjudged the will of the Canadian people and the strength of the Canadian people,” Ford said. “Let’s get through this.”
