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Jane Coaston: It’s Tuesday, July 29th, I’m Jane Coaston and this is What a Day, the show that is here to tell you that the year we are currently in is 2025. Mark that down, because apparently, what year did things happen is a subject of open discussion for some of our Republican friends. Like, say, what years was Barack Obama president for? Which Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin had a really, really hard time with for some reason when discussing the Epstein case with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. 

[clip of Jake Tapper] It was 2008. It was the US attorney at the time was a guy named Alex Acosta. He was a Bush appointee. He went on to become President Trump’s secretary of labor. It all took place in 2008. 

[clip of Senator Markwayne Mullin] Who was in office at the time? 

[clip of Jake Tapper] 2008, George W. Bush. 

[clip of Senator Markwayne Mullin] Who was in office at the time? 

[clip of Jake Tapper] George W. Bush. 

[clip of Senator Markwayne Mullin] No, 2009 is when the case came out and it was and and and–

[clip of Jake Tapper] Not true. 

[clip of Senator Markwayne Mullin] Obama was in the office at the time. 

[clip of Jake Tapper] It’s not true. 

Jane Coaston: Look if you’re attempting to refute the time-space continuum in order to defend President Donald Trump, you might be a little far gone. [music break] On today’s show, President Trump amps up pressure on Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine. And former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina launches a Senate bid. But let’s start with the food crisis in Gaza, which has descended into new depths of horror, because multiple aid groups say Gaza’s two million residents are at risk of starving to death, particularly Gaza’s children. Some have already died. And global outrage is building. Even the aid workers themselves, the people tasked with helping Palestinians find food and water, say they too are starving. The ballooning hunger crisis in Gaza is a result of months of severe aid restrictions imposed by Israel over allegations Hamas was stealing aid. But while the Israeli government officially lifted its total blockade of aid in May, the amount entering Gaza is still way below what it had been earlier in the war. Here’s an example. The Wall Street Journal reported that while a temporary ceasefire was in effect at the start of the year, roughly 300,000 tons of aid was being delivered into Gaza. In more recent months, it’s dropped below 40,000 tons. When President Donald Trump, one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s biggest backers, gets that something is going horribly wrong in Gaza, you know things are bad. Here he is speaking to reporters Monday from his golf course in Scotland. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] But we’re gonna be getting some good strong food. We can save a lot of people. I mean, some of those kids are, that’s real starvation stuff, I see it. And you can’t fake that. So we’re going to be even more involved. We did some airlifts before, some air drops, and the people are running for it. 

Jane Coaston: Over the weekend, Israel began airdropping more aid into the territory and began daily humanitarian pauses in fighting to help with aid distribution. But as Israel’s most powerful ally, the United States has funded and fueled this crisis across two presidential administrations. It’s not just supplying weapons to Israel. The U.S. also played a role in the hunger crisis because right now, the main aid distribution centers in Gaza are run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-supported, U. S. backed non-profit. The UN says hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while trying to source food near GHF sites. But more and more American politicians are saying that what is happening in Gaza is morally wrong. So to talk more about the situation in Gaza and what America has done and should do next, I spoke to Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen. Senator Van Hollen, welcome to What a Day. 

Chris Van Hollen: It’s good to be with you. 

Jane Coaston: You and 20 of your colleagues in the Senate sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday, urging him to stop US funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Uh. This is the American-backed, Israeli-approved aid distribution group in Gaza that’s come under heavy international criticism for the way they’ve been delivering aid and the horrible violence that sprung up around them. Was it difficult to get those signatures from your colleagues? Did you speak to other senators who didn’t feel comfortable signing? 

Chris Van Hollen: Well, I was glad to get the senators that we did to sign on. Others were encouraged to do so. Almost everybody I talked to has serious concerns with this so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has become really a death trap where starving people swarming for food get shot at. So I hope that the Trump administration will terminate funding. That’s why we sent them the letter, just to say, no American taxpayer should have to be financing this kind of scheme that is leading to even more people dying. 

Jane Coaston: Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance did acknowledge that more needs to be done to get aid into Gaza, which I think everybody knows. And that’s been a small break in their otherwise steadfast support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Do you see that as an opening for a fundamental shift in how the U.S. has been approaching this war? Because I feel like I’m not sure if you felt it, there is a shift on how people are talking about this in America. 

Chris Van Hollen: Yeah, look, I mean, if Donald Trump and J.D. Vance cannot acknowledge what our eyes can tell us and what the experts are telling us, which is people are starving in Gaza, but everybody in the world can see that that’s what’s happening. The reality is that the Trump administration has not put any pressure on the Netanyahu government to allow the UN organizations to resume their food supply. In fact, essentially the Trump administration is giving Netanyahu a blank check to keep doing what it’s doing. So I wouldn’t read into the fact that President Trump has acknowledged what everyone can see, which is people are starving. What he should be doing is calling publicly upon Netanyahu to immediately allow those international organizations to resume supplying aid instead of turning to this GHF which is a private organization backed by mercenaries and backed by the IDF. 

Jane Coaston: On Sunday, you were on CBS’s Face the Nation and you said that it was a lie that Hamas was systematically stealing food that the UN was delivering to Palestinians. How do you know that? 

Chris Van Hollen: Well, this is a big lie, and I know it for a couple of reasons. One, um it was just reported, very credible reports in the New York Times that senior Israeli military officials had admitted that they don’t have evidence to support the claim that Hamas is systematically diverting those funds. Just earlier this week, USAID, despite Musk’s effort to ax it, and he’s done incredible damage, but they released a report with the same finding that um when the UN organizations were providing humanitarian assistance, it was not being systematically diverted by Hamas. I also know because Cindy McCain has said that. And the US’s former humanitarian coordinator, a guy called Ambassador David Satterfield, when he was there, I would call him regularly about these reports that Hamas was systematically taking the food. And he got back to me, including in writing, saying when he presented. When he asked the government of Israel for evidence, they could not provide evidence. So this is a pretext for getting rid of the UN organized food distribution, which however imperfect was at least getting food to people who were in great hunger and need. It was a pre-text to replace that with this so-called Gaza humanitarian foundation, whose really real goal is to use food to try to force Palestinians in Gaza to go to certain areas. And of course, we’ve heard from members of the Netanyahu government their ultimate goal is once you drive Palestinians into concentrated enclaves, you then push them out of the country. I mean, we all remember when Donald Trump was standing next to Prime Minister Netanyahu and saying, we should just essentially kick all the Palestinians out. That is ethnic cleansing by another name. And the United States should not and must not be complicit in doing that. 

Jane Coaston: Senator, is there anything that can be done to make Israel resume allowing the U.N. Aid into Gaza? 

Chris Van Hollen: Well, I think the United States should use its considerable influence. I mean, first of all, President Trump, if he has credibility anywhere, it’s with people in Israel. So if he were to call publicly upon Netanyahu to immediately allow the UN to resume the delivery of food and humanitarian supplies, that would put a lot of pressure on them. I believe that we should pause the delivery of offensive weapons to Israel until they stop using food as a weapon of war. 

Jane Coaston: Just offensive weapons? What about stopping all weapons supplies to Israel? 

Chris Van Hollen: Well, I have supported stopping those while these ongoing breaches of international law are continuing. I have supported providing the Iron Dome air defense systems. But again, when we got a Trump administration that won’t even say publicly, won’t say even say publicly that the Netanyahu government needs to allow the UN delivery system to resume. So for President Trump to talk about, hey, people are doing some airdrops. That does not meet the moment, the urgency of the moment. 

Jane Coaston: It does feel like, and you know I mentioned this earlier, that there’s been this tidal shift happening with regard to public outrage over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But to your point, the blockade actually started in March and ended in May. And children and civilians have been dying in Gaza for a long time, the death tolls in the tens of thousands. Why do you think now is the moment where people are finally starting to speak out? Like when you’re hearing Trump talking about how like, no, no, no, children are starving. What happened now, do you think? 

Chris Van Hollen: Well, you’re right. I mean, some of us have been trying to raise the alarm about this since last March, and really for even longer before that during the war in Gaza, we pointed out that you know the horrors of October 7th and they were horrible when Hamas attacked Israel, but that does not justify the actions that the Netanyahu government have been taking, including using food as a weapon of war. So it’s taken the world way too long to wake up to the dire moment we’re in, which has been ongoing. Um. And unfortunately, the Trump administration, while finally acknowledging what the world can see, is still not willing to take the action necessary to make sure that food gets in at scale. 

Jane Coaston: You’ve been very outspoken, way more outspoke on this issue than a lot of Democrats in the Senate on this. And as you say, like you’ve been talking about this for more than a year. What do you think is holding back more of your colleagues, more of your liberal colleagues from forcefully speaking out about the crisis in Gaza and America’s role in it publicly as you have? 

Chris Van Hollen: Well, obviously each can answer for themselves, but you know my view is they feel a lot of political pressure um from different organizations. For example, AIPAC um you know always you know threatens to come after people if they depart from the AIPAC position. I mean, they ran ads against me in my state of Maryland since I’ve been outspoken. So we need more people who are willing to stand up uh, to organizations like, like AIPAC. 

Jane Coaston: I think what people are listening to this want to hear is not just what you’re doing because you’re acting on this front. And I think a lot of people are starting to hear more voices of people in positions of power such as yourself, but is there anything you think the public should or could be doing to support aid entering Gaza? There are lots of people obviously who feel very strongly about this. I don’t know how much you time you spend on Instagram, but that’s my entire Instagram feed is people talking about children starving to death in Gaza. But they aren’t sure where to put their energy. Where should they be putting it? 

Chris Van Hollen: Well, I think they should be putting their energy on holding their elected officials accountable for doing something about it. And what that means is tracking how people are voting, whether they’re willing to take meaningful positions, whether they are willing to hold the Netanyahu government accountable. So it’s about time here in the United States, you know people started waking up here. I do think what they need to do is call upon their elected official to actually take meaningful positions, there have to be some consequences to using food as a weapon of war. 

Jane Coaston: But by that measure of holding elected officials accountable, as you say, that would necessarily include a lot of Democrats. Should they be held accountable, voted out of office too on this on this issue? 

Chris Van Hollen: Well, I think every elected official, regardless of party affiliation, should hear from their constituents on issues that are important to their constituents. And I would I would hope the fact that the United States is complicit in the starvation of people in Gaza um is something along those lines. So, I mean, yes, tell elected officials that you’re watching whether they’re gonna take meaningful action on this and hold them accountable. I will say, unfortunately, look, The Republican Party in Congress is 100 percent down the line with Netanyahu. I don’t call that pro-Israel, I just call that Pro-Netanyahu’s government. And so when you’re trying to do something in Congress on this issue, you start with the Republican Party that is 100% with Netanyahu, that’s where Trump’s been. As you say, there are also a lot of Democrats that I wish had been speaking up for much longer and even now. So but this is where the voters, I believe, can make a difference, overcoming you know some of these very narrow interest groups um that are essentially threatened to spend money on ads or other actions against elected officials who simply want to call out the fact that we need to end starvation in Gaza and that the Netanyahu government is is the one right now using food as a weapon of war. 

Jane Coaston: Senator Van Hollen, thank you so much for joining me. 

Chris Van Hollen: Thank you. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Maryland’s Democratic Senator, Chris Van Hollen. We’ll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK] 

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him, so we’re going to have to look, and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number, because I think I already know the answer to what’s going to happen. Thank you very much everybody, we’ll see you later. 

Jane Coaston: President Trump says he plans to shorten the 50-day deadline he previously gave Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the country’s attacks on Ukraine. Trump made the comments Monday at his golf club in Scotland, where he was hosting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to talk trade and other matters. Speaking to reporters later in the day, the president revealed his new timeline for Putin to come to the negotiating table, ten to 12 days. So the businessman version of two weeks. Because it’s always two weeks. Trump went on to threaten consequences for the Russian economy if Putin doesn’t meet his new deadline. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] It would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs. You know what a secondary tariff is. And look, the Russian economy, I don’t want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people. They’re great people. I don’t want to do that to Russia, but they’re losing a lot of Russians. They’ve lost a million Russians. 

Jane Coaston: That was cogent. Trump’s announcement came just hours after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles Sunday night, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. Russia and Ukraine have been at war for almost three and a half years. So far, multiple rounds of direct peace talks in Turkey have failed to bring the two countries closer to reaching a ceasefire deal. Their most recent meeting last week ended after less than an hour. A federal judge in Massachusetts Monday indefinitely stopped the Trump administration from withholding Medicaid funding from certain Planned Parenthood affiliates. The judge’s ruling extends a temporary block issued earlier this month. At issue is a provision in President Trump’s new tax and spending law, aka the One Big Beautiful Bill. It imposes a one-year ban on Medicaid payments to healthcare nonprofits that perform abortions, even for services not directly related to abortion. But there’s a catch. The law only applies to clinics that generated more than $800,000 in Medicaid payments in 2023. Planned Parenthood argued in a lawsuit the provision was specifically designed to target its clinics and the judge agreed. Planned Parenthood’s CEO has referred to this provision as a quote, “backdoor abortion ban.” In its suit against the Trump administration, the organization argued the Medicaid ban would disproportionately affect blue states. Five planned parenthood locations in California have already closed this month in the wake of the cuts. 

[clip of Roy Cooper] It wasn’t always this hard, because being in the middle class meant something. You could afford a home, your kids went to good schools, your job paid enough to cover the basics, and most summers you could get away for a few days. For the most part, life was pretty good. I’m Roy Cooper, and I know that today for too many Americans, the middle-class feels like a distant dream. 

Jane Coaston: Bro, I am aware. Former North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper announced Monday he’s running for the state’s open Senate seat. He made his big announcement Monday via a video released online saying the American middle class is on the brink of disappearing. 

[clip of Roy Cooper] Politicians in D.C. are running up our debt, ripping away our healthcare, disrespecting our veterans, cutting health for the poor, and even putting Medicare and Social Security at risk, just to give tax breaks to billionaires. 

Jane Coaston: Cooper’s entry into the race gives Democrats a big boost. He’s a proven statewide winner, and the North Carolina Senate race is expected to be one of the most competitive in next year’s midterm elections. To retake the majority in the Senate, Democrats need to win four seats while keeping the ones they already hold. The former two-term governor is set to be the front-runner for the state’s Democratic primary to ultimately fill the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis. And on the MAGA side, it’s rumored that Republican National Committee Chairman, Michael Whatley, has plans to run, with his Lord and Savior, President Donald Trump’s blessing, of course. While Whatley has not made his run official yet, Trump endorsed him on Truth Social last week. And in the latest drip, drip of news around President Trump’s old ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Trump acknowledged his privilege during his press conference in Scotland Monday. But unfortunately, it wasn’t in a self-aware way. It was more predictably in a really creepy and upsetting way. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] And by the way, I never went to the island. And Bill Clinton went there, supposedly 28 times. I never went to the Island, but Larry Summers, I hear, went there. He was the head of Harvard. And many other people that are very big people, nobody ever talks about them. I never had the privilege of going to his island. 

Jane Coaston: That’s right. The president of the United States says he never had the privilege of vacationing on the private island owned by a man accused of sexually abusing hundreds of young girls and women. Epstein died by suicide in prison awaiting trial on those charges but pleaded guilty to state charges years prior. Some witnesses have referred to the financier’s private island as, quote, “pedophile island.” I want to be clear. I hate that I had to say that, but here we are. And oh good, there’s yet more Epstein news to relay. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island demanded the Department of Justice release recordings of its recent meetings with Epstein’s former accomplice and girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. They also asked the DOJ to make a public commitment to not advocate for a pardon for Maxwell, but Trump didn’t rule it out. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody’s approached me with it. Nobody’s asked me about it. Um. It’s in the news about that, that aspect of it. But right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it, so. 

Jane Coaston: Cool. Also on Monday, Trump’s personal lawyers made a request to depose media mogul Rupert Murdoch in the next 15 days as part of Trump’s lawsuit against him and the Wall Street Journal. Earlier this month, the Journal published an article alleging Trump wrote Epstein a lewd birthday message in the early 2000s when the two were known to be friends. Okay, that’s that’s all that’s all we’ve got. And that’s the news. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, but remember that God does not want you to run a crypto scam and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading and not just about how a pastor in Denver and his wife created and sold a God-inspired cryptocurrency and raised nearly $4 million dollars and you will be stunned to know that most of that money went to plane tickets and home renovations, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and no one wants you to run a crypto scam. Not even the Lord. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily Fohr. Our producer is Michell Eloy. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Gina Pollock, and Laura Newcomb. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. We had help with the headlines from the Associated Press. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]

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