Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says Ukraine Shows People Willing to “Fight and Die” for Liberal Democracy, and That This Fight Goes “Way Way Beyond Ukraine”

See below for video of Sen. Mark Warner’s “press availability,” held earlier this afternoon. A few highlights include the following:

• “We’re on day 13 of the war in Ukraine. This is a war that has united the world, united our country. Vladimir Putin, Russian forces I believe are committing war crimes, real time, for the world to see. And I’ve been very pleased by…the administration’s response in rebuilding our critically important alliance[s], not just NATO but other nations around the world. I was glad today that the president joined efforts that I’d been proposing and others about stopping the import of Russian oil…”
• On higher gasoline prices, Sen. Warner said “this is causing real hurt,” that the president is releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, that “we can increase domestic production that’s already been leased.”
• Sen. Warner is worried about Russia launching cyberattacks against western countries.
• “I think over the last 3 or 4 years, we’ve gone through a really challenging time in this country…January 6…[Trump] contested with a Big Lie the validity of [the 2020] election…COVID…there’s been questions…is it still America’s day, can the values of liberal democracy…stand up [to] authoritarian regimes.” With Putin, we have an “authoritarian” “bully,” and what is happening is that the people of Ukraine are “literally voting with their lives” to “embrace the values of liberal democracy” that in this country at times we “take for granted.” We need to acknowledge that, with all the “messiness,” liberal democracy is “still the best system that man has ever created,” and people are willing to “fight and die for” it. Also, it is “our day and our time to stand strong and resolute and make sure that Vladimir Putin, under no circumstances, can be successful in Ukraine, because this goes way way beyond Ukraine.”