'Next-Level Obtuse': Sen. Kennedy Schools Van Hollen Over 'Due Process' Claims About Abrego Garcia

As per the norm, Democrats continue to embarrass themselves over the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, with four on the House side traveling this week to El Salvador to plead for the release of the illegal immigrant and suspected MS-13 gang member, only to get shut down by officials in the country on grounds that they weren't visiting in an "official capacity."

Those Democrats - Reps. Robert Garcia (CA), Maxwell Frost (FL), Yassamin Ansari (AZ), and Maxine Dexter (OR) - were, of course, following the lead of virtue-signaling Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who traveled to El Salvador last Wednesday to see his so-called "constituent" at the CECOT mega-prison, only to initially get shut down as well.

Eventually, he was allowed to sit with Abrego Garcia in a restaurant to talk to him, where the optics for Van Hollen were terrible. He and Abrego Garcia were seen with margaritas on the table, alcoholic beverages that Van Hollen would later claim were staged by El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele, to make Van Hollen look bad (as though he needed any help on that front).

On Sunday, the Maryland Senator made the rounds on the talking head shows, admitting on Fox News that his stunt was an "officially cleared Congressional trip," meaning it was funded by United States taxpayers.

After Van Hollen's appearance on "Meet the Press," his Senate colleague, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), also sat down for an interview with host Kristen Welker, who proceeded to ask him his thoughts on the case.

Kennedy responded in true Sen. Kennedy fashion, charmingly noting Van Hollen was "my friend" before kindly nuking his arguments:

Well, Chris is my friend. And I respect him. And he's certainly entitled to his opinion. But in my judgment, he is utterly and gloriously wrong. I mean, most of this gauzy rhetoric is just rage bait. Unless you’re next-level obtuse, you know that Mr. Garcia is never coming back to the United States ever. And that's not because of President Trump. That's because of President Bukele. He said up front in the Oval Office that he was not going to return Mr. Garcia.
No federal judge, even J. Wilkinson, has authority over a sovereign country. Besides that, it should not go unnoticed that Mr. Bukele is much closer to President Xi in China than he is to President Trump. Xi is spending billions of dollars to build infrastructure in El Salvador. And I wouldn't be surprised if they've discussed this case. The final point I would make, whether you agree with it or not, is Bukele hates MS-13. And Mr. Garcia, allegedly, is a member of MS-13.
The other point I would make is that Chris says Mr. Garcia's had no due process. He's been in front of 17 judges, some of 'em twice, probably $5 million worth of legal fees and he hadn't had to pay a dime.

Watch:

Sen John Kennedy Unloads on Van Hollen: Gloriously Wrong’ on Garcia’s Return

"Chris is my friend. And I respect him. And he's certainly entitled to his opinion. But in my judgment, he is utterly and gloriously wrong. I mean, most of this gauzy rhetoric is just rage bait. Unless… pic.twitter.com/quEgToiZnF
— Mr Producer (@RichSementa) April 20, 2025

Further, and in a point that conveniently gets overlooked by Democrat/media critics of the Trump administration's handling of this case, the 2019 court order from an immigration judge that protected Abrego Garcia from being repatriated to El Salvador specifically noted that he was not being granted blanket asylum, and that the order did not mean he had a right to remain in the United States:

Another immigration judge grants Abrego Garcia protection from removal to El Salvador, affirming his contention that he would be endangered by local gangs. But the judge denies blanket asylum, noting that “withholding from removal, in contrast to asylum, confers only the right not to be deported to a particular country rather than the right to remain in the U.S.”

The Trump administration's argument, in a nutshell, is that it made an "administrative error" in deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, but that it had the right to send him to another country because a judge in 2019 deemed him "removable." What happens now is anyone's guess, as the case is still playing out in the courts and Bukele has said he has no intentions of returning Abrego Garcia. But what shouldn't be in dispute, as Kennedy pointed out, is the fact that he has indeed gotten due process time and time again.

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