Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said President Donald Trump should declare an end to the miliary con=flict in Iran “right now.”
Partial transcript as follows:
MARTHA RADDATZ: Well, you have said, there’s no good way to get out of a bad war. So, how do you think you end this? You have the Iranians, who haven’t kept their word. What do you do?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, when you’re digging a hole, you just stop digging. And my view is that’s what we should do. There was no clear objective for this war from the beginning. This was a war started by President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Prime Minister Netanyahu convinced Donald Trump that it would be quick and that we would get regime change. And what we’ve gotten instead is an even more militant Iranian regime, and the Strait of Hormuz, of course, is still closed now when it was open the day before the war. So, my view is just, end it right now. And I will not vote for one more penny for this senseless war.
RADDATZ: So, you just walk away from that war. What would the Iranians take away from that? What would happen to them and their ambitions at this point?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, Martha, I think the Strait of Hormuz would then reopen. I mean there’s no question that Iran would go back to the status quo before the war started. I believe that. And that would show just how senseless this war is. But, again, Donald Trump declared victory back in March. And so, my view is end it. We had Pete Hegseth before the Appropriations Committee, clearly, no strategy. And when you have no strategy, it’s completely unfair to American troops to continue to put them in harm’s way.
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