Longtime Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee cautioned his party against aligning too closely with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who, according to the Trump administration, was deported last month as an MS-13 gang member and accused domestic abuser, during an appearance Friday on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt. Elleithee reminded Democrats that they “don’t know all of the details about this guy,” and warned against making him a “martyr.”
He instead recommended that Democrats focus on what he perceives as the Trump administration “chipping away at our rights.” He said, “Let’s not make him a martyr. Let’s make this about the fact that Donald Trump and his administration are chipping away at our rights on a daily basis.” His remarks came after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md..) spoke at a press conference Friday, recounting his recent meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador and vowing to continue advocating for his release from the country’s high-security mega-prison. Elleithee pushed back on Van Hollen’s stance, questioning whether the senator’s message would “resonate with the rest of the country.”
“Look, I think everyone in the White House is giving each other high-fives, and everyone who supports the guy in El Salvador is giving each other high-fives, right? Both sides have kind of gone to their corners and are saying this is the fight we want to have. Whereas I don’t necessarily know it’s the conversation that would resonate with the rest of the country,” Elleithee said. The Democratic strategist suggested that the party should shift its focus away from Kilmar Abrego Garcia as an individual and instead emphasize the broader implications his case has for the country, Fox News reported.
“It’s less about him, as it is about all of us,” Elleithee suggested. “And if he [Van Hollen] were to have focused on that — he did it a little bit, he did it a little bit there about a third of the way through, right? — Where he said, ‘Taking away his constitutional rights takes away all of our constitutional rights.’ That’s the place to take this.”