See below for video of Sen. Mark Warner’s town hall a bit earlier today. A few key points:
- On reopening schools, Warner said, “Like any parent, I want schools to reopen, but I believe that schools need to reopen in a fair and healthy way and that decision…should be made by teachers, parents, local superintendents, and those folks on the ground in a community based upon what is in the best safety intetrest of the student population and how the community is grappling with COVID.”
- “So I was outraged when Donald Trump and…Betsy DeVos threatened to cut off federal funding for K-12 schools based upon whether they don’t respond to Trump’s and DeVos’ political wish list. We’ve known for months that this president keeps wanting to wish away the virus, and his failure to lead has ended up with our country being the worst-performing country in the world…and we cannot allow these irresponsible actions…to carry over into putting our kids… at risk come this fall.”
- “I’ve introduced legislation today that will make explicitly clear that Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos have no right or ability to limit federal dollars to public schools based upon their political wishes of when and how schools reopen. Those decisions should be made by local communities…we’ve got to draw the line. Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump messing with our kids’ safety goes beyond pale of traditional politics and we’re not going to allow you to penalize schools…”
- He said he’s been working to create long-term structural relief to make sure there’s fair access to capital amongst low-income communities, particularly Black and brown communities…”it’s one of my top priorities in the next COVID bill.”
- Warner said that the election of Joe Biden “will go a long way” towards healing the damage that’s been done to our country’s position in the world by “the Donald Trump show.” Warner added that Biden will have a “world-class team of leaders” and will help to bring our country back together.
- Warner said that he’s eager to debate his Republican opponent, Daniel Gade, who appears to be “very similar to Mr. Trump in a lot of his views.” He said he’s hoping Gade will agree to the “traditional approach” of having three debates.
- On the situation in Portland, Oregon, where Trump has sent “unwanted troops,” Warner said it’s “stunning,” that seeing moms linking arms against the police in Portland “is the kind of story you read about” in places like Argentina during the dirty war…”unmarked federal intervention in America…should not come about…This is the way things happen in fascist countries, not in America.“
- On our upcoming elections, Sen. Warner said the refusal of the Trump White House to take Russian interference “is remarkably frightening to me.”
- Warner said it’s “beyond the pale” for Trump to attack vote-by-mail and to say he might not accept the results of the election. Warner said he strongly supports vote-by-mail and hopes a large % of Virginians vote before election day. He said he feels pretty good about the security of voting-by-mail this fall.
- Warner said he stands up for the constitution by standing up for rule of law, and time and again, he’s seen this administration not stand up for the rule of law or the constitution.
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