Chris Van Hollen

Monday on MS NOW’s “All In,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) claimed the Republican-led Senate had allowed President Donald Trump to “run roughshod over the Constitution.”

Host Chris Hayes said, “Today, the White House has sent official notification to Congress that there is now another war with Iran. If I’m not mistaken, they have under the War Powers Act, basically said there’s now a new war. The Memorandum of Understanding is dead and now you have been notified per the War Powers Act that basically it’s a new war and the clock starts ticking. What do you think about that?”

Van Hollen said, “Well, that’s right, it’s complete game playing with the the timeline. And, you know, the really terrible thing is that Senate Republicans have been complicit in allowing this president to run roughshod over the Constitution, completely ignoring their own constitutional duties, because, you know, the president says, okay, we’ll have a cease fire today. And so the war Powers Resolution clock starts again tomorrow. It’s obviously a way for a president to completely circumvent, the Congress and the law.”

He added, “I will say, Chris, that it hasn’t gotten much attention, but tomorrow we will have a vote in the Senate on what’s called a motion to proceed to the National Defense Authorization bill, which is a request for well over $1 trillion, a huge increase in defense spending. And I hope that my Democratic Senate colleagues will will join me and others in blocking that from moving forward.”