Video: Sen. Warner Says There Are a “Lot of Things” He Supports in “PRO Act,” But Still Has “Concerns”; Is “Outraged” at What Happened to Lt. Nazario; Will Not Be Endorsing In Statewide Dem Primaries

See below for video and a few highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s “media availability” earlier today. As usual, Sen. Warner covered a lot of ground, and it’s definitely worth checking out.  With that, here are three highlights:

• On the “Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act,” Sen. Warner said “there’s a lot of things…that I support,” that he thinks “it is important that working people in Virginia and  ..across America have the right to organize.” But, Warner added, “there are certain components of the legislation that do make me pause – some of the process issues around an election voting process for a union I’m still reviewing.” So, he said, “there are parts of the PRO Act that I have still some concerns; it’s one of the reasons why I have not chosen to co-sponsor the legislation, and so if it comes to the floor of the Senate, I’ll be looking at ways that we might be able to improve that bill, because the overarching goal of having more people have the right to organize, having more Americans having their voice recognized and represented by a labor union, I think goes a long way towards making sure people get the fair pay and benefits they deserve.”
• On the disturbing video of the police stop of Lt. Nazario in Windsor, Virginia, Sen. Warner said he was “outraged” to see what happened. Warner called what the police did a “complete overreaction” and said “it is a sad commentary that when an African-American male who is in uniform is still afraid to exit a car in today’s day and age, when police officers come with guns drawn for what again was a routine traffic stop it appears correct that the Windsor police chief fired the officer that was most egregious, and I’m going to be watching to see the results of the state police investigation all of these actions.”
• On the Democratic statewide primaries, Sen. Warner said he has “a lot of friends” running, so he’s “decided that I’m going to be not endorsing any of the statewide candidates and let the Democrats go ahead and sort that out in the primary, but then I will obviously get fully behind whoever we nominate.”