On “Face the Nation” this morning, Sen. Mark Warner said we haven’t done nearly enough to protect our elections from Russian and other foreign interference (see video, below). According to Warner. there are “some commonsense things that would get 75 votes if they could get to the floor of the Senate.” For instance, obligating people to “tell the FBI” if they’re approached by a foreign government by offering “dirt on an opponent.” Also, “making sure that…every polling station in America has a paper ballot backup….who could be against that?” And “third, let’s make sure we’ve got some rules of the road for Facebook, Twitter, Google, social media so there’s not the ability to have foreign agents and bots manipulate America.” Warner added that “this administration has stopped every election security legislation from coming to the floor, and they’ve been supported in that…by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.”
In other news, Sen. Warner said he thinks Speaker Pelosi has handled the issue of impeachment “pretty well”; that Mueller was effective at “laying out the four corners of the report”; that our voting systems in 2016 were “horribly unprotected” and that we “[can’t] count on…being lucky again in 2020”; that he’s not sure if he’ll vote for the budget deal…likes some aspects of it but is “concerned with a country with $22 trillion in debt that we’ve added another $2 trillion with this deal.” On that last point, I agree with Sen. Warner that it’s crazy how Trump and the Republicans have been exploding the deficit/debt, but I’d argue that right now, this budget deal is essential to avoid shutdown, draconian “sequestration” and potential default.
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