Democrats and their media surrogates were clearly back on their heels Sunday as they attempted to simultaneously defend efforts to retrieve deported illegal alien and suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego-Garcia and fight their way out of increasingly dismal approval ratings.

For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.

Sunday’s spin was largely focused on Abrego-Garcia — as Democrats and Republicans split on whether the illegal alien, who had been living in Maryland despite a legal deportation order issued in 2019, had been denied due process — and Senator Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) trip to El Salvador on his behalf.

But Democrats also have to contend with the fact that their party is increasingly unpopular even with their own base — and that members of the party do not agree on what’s causing that problem or how to fix it. Newly-elected Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg announced early in the week that his organization, Leaders We Deserve, planned to dump $20 million into primary challenges against aging Democrats.

Hogg’s announcement prompted the ire of longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, who referred to the DNC Vice Chair as a “contemptible little twerp” and suggested that the DNC could sue him for working against the party’s interests. Hogg fired back, saying that Carville had not won an election since before he was born.

Rep. James Coburn (D-SC) made an appearance on MSNBC, where he claimed that there was nothing wrong with his party’s message and that depressingly low approval ratings were due to legacy media failing to promote that message heavily enough.

 

Complicating matters even further are recent polls that indicate more and more Americans are siding with President Donald Trump on illegal immigration, with a majority of voters favoring the deportation of all illegal immigrants.

By Sunday, Van Hollen had returned from his humanitarian mission to visit deported illegal alien Abrego-Garcia in El Salvador — so his next order of business was a netw0rk-by-network tour to talk about it.

On ABC News’ “This Week,” Van Hollen leaned into the assertion that Abrego-Garcia had been denied due process and attempted to spin the trip solely as an effort to defend the illegal’s rights.

“I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process,” he claimed. CNN assisted Van Hollen in his efforts, describing Abrego-Garcia simply as a “Maryland resident.”

Van Hollen also criticized Salvadoran officials, whom he said had set up photo ops during their meeting to make it appear as though Abrego-Garcia was being treated better than he actually was: “The Salvadoran authorities tried to deceive people. They tried to make it look like he was in paradise.”

Van Hollen repeated that same sentiment on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” saying, “They go to great lengths to deceive people, and that’s what you saw. These government guys essentially told the waiters to bring these drinks that appear to look like margaritas to the table. No one touched them.”

On NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Van Hollen claimed that the Trump administration was “flouting the courts” and  provoking a “constitutional crisis” by allowing Abrego-Garcia – who is a citizen of El Salvador — to remain in Salvadoran custody.

And on “Fox News Sunday,” Van Hollen admitted to anchor Shannon Bream that his trip to El Salvador had been an “official Congressional trip,” meaning that it had been financed with taxpayer dollars.

CNN anchor Dana Bash pressed Van Hollen on Abrego-Garcia’s alleged ties to violent Salvadoran street gang MS-13 — noting that the Trump administration has cited court documents indicating that he is or was a member — but the Maryland Senator admitted he had not even asked about that.

“Can you say with absolute certainty that he is not, nor has he ever been a member of the MS-13 gang, and did you ask him point blank?” Bash asked.

“What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject. The subject at hand is that he and his administration are defying a court order to give to give Abrego Garcia his due process rights. They are trying to litigate on social media what they should be doing in the courts,” Van Hollen complained. “I didn’t ask him that because I know what his answer is what he told me was he was sad and traumatized that he was being in prison because he has committed no crimes, and that goes to the heart of this issue because he’s being denied his due process rights.”

Meanwhile, during a different segment on ABC News, host Jon Karl pressed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on the party’s struggles with low popularity numbers — and Hogg’s promise to aid in unseating some incumbent Democrats going into 2026.

“I look forward to standing behind every single Democratic incumbent, from the most progressive, to the most centrist, and all points in between,” Jeffries replied.

But Hogg also made it clear later in the broadcast that he had no intention of backing down either. “We cannot just be the party that is against Donald Trump. We have to be a party that doesn’t have a 27% approval rating from our own base. That is not a survivable future.”

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Democrats and their media surrogates were clearly back on their heels Sunday as they attempted to simultaneously defend efforts to retrieve deported illegal alien and suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego-Garcia and fight their way out of increasingly dismal approval ratings.

For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.

Sunday’s spin was largely focused on Abrego-Garcia — as Democrats and Republicans split on whether the illegal alien, who had been living in Maryland despite a legal deportation order issued in 2019, had been denied due process — and Senator Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) trip to El Salvador on his behalf.

But Democrats also have to contend with the fact that their party is increasingly unpopular even with their own base — and that members of the party do not agree on what’s causing that problem or how to fix it. Newly-elected Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg announced early in the week that his organization, Leaders We Deserve, planned to dump $20 million into primary challenges against aging Democrats.

Hogg’s announcement prompted the ire of longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, who referred to the DNC Vice Chair as a “contemptible little twerp” and suggested that the DNC could sue him for working against the party’s interests. Hogg fired back, saying that Carville had not won an election since before he was born.

Rep. James Coburn (D-SC) made an appearance on MSNBC, where he claimed that there was nothing wrong with his party’s message and that depressingly low approval ratings were due to legacy media failing to promote that message heavily enough.

 

Complicating matters even further are recent polls that indicate more and more Americans are siding with President Donald Trump on illegal immigration, with a majority of voters favoring the deportation of all illegal immigrants.

By Sunday, Van Hollen had returned from his humanitarian mission to visit deported illegal alien Abrego-Garcia in El Salvador — so his next order of business was a netw0rk-by-network tour to talk about it.

On ABC News’ “This Week,” Van Hollen leaned into the assertion that Abrego-Garcia had been denied due process and attempted to spin the trip solely as an effort to defend the illegal’s rights.

“I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process,” he claimed. CNN assisted Van Hollen in his efforts, describing Abrego-Garcia simply as a “Maryland resident.”

Van Hollen also criticized Salvadoran officials, whom he said had set up photo ops during their meeting to make it appear as though Abrego-Garcia was being treated better than he actually was: “The Salvadoran authorities tried to deceive people. They tried to make it look like he was in paradise.”

Van Hollen repeated that same sentiment on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” saying, “They go to great lengths to deceive people, and that’s what you saw. These government guys essentially told the waiters to bring these drinks that appear to look like margaritas to the table. No one touched them.”

On NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Van Hollen claimed that the Trump administration was “flouting the courts” and  provoking a “constitutional crisis” by allowing Abrego-Garcia – who is a citizen of El Salvador — to remain in Salvadoran custody.

And on “Fox News Sunday,” Van Hollen admitted to anchor Shannon Bream that his trip to El Salvador had been an “official Congressional trip,” meaning that it had been financed with taxpayer dollars.

CNN anchor Dana Bash pressed Van Hollen on Abrego-Garcia’s alleged ties to violent Salvadoran street gang MS-13 — noting that the Trump administration has cited court documents indicating that he is or was a member — but the Maryland Senator admitted he had not even asked about that.

“Can you say with absolute certainty that he is not, nor has he ever been a member of the MS-13 gang, and did you ask him point blank?” Bash asked.

“What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject. The subject at hand is that he and his administration are defying a court order to give to give Abrego Garcia his due process rights. They are trying to litigate on social media what they should be doing in the courts,” Van Hollen complained. “I didn’t ask him that because I know what his answer is what he told me was he was sad and traumatized that he was being in prison because he has committed no crimes, and that goes to the heart of this issue because he’s being denied his due process rights.”

Meanwhile, during a different segment on ABC News, host Jon Karl pressed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on the party’s struggles with low popularity numbers — and Hogg’s promise to aid in unseating some incumbent Democrats going into 2026.

“I look forward to standing behind every single Democratic incumbent, from the most progressive, to the most centrist, and all points in between,” Jeffries replied.

But Hogg also made it clear later in the broadcast that he had no intention of backing down either. “We cannot just be the party that is against Donald Trump. We have to be a party that doesn’t have a 27% approval rating from our own base. That is not a survivable future.”

“}]] 

 

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