Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says Anyone Willing to Default on the National Debt “beyond the pale,” “stupidity on steroids,” “irresponsible and frankly doesn’t belong in any position of responsibility”

See below for video of Sen. Mark Warner’s call yesterday with the media. Sen. Warner covered a bunch of topics, including:

• The debt ceiling – This “could be an impending crisis. There are some in the House of Representatives who said they want to hold hostage the United States paying its bills”; this is the “height of irresponsibility,” “would send our economy not only into recession but potentially even worse, and from a geopolitical standpoint it would be a pure gift to Vladimir Putin to the Communist Party of China and Xi Jinping in terms of showing remarkable weakness in America at a critical point a point in time….Do we need to do something about [the debt]? Absolutely. Do we need to use the full faith and credit of the United States and put it in jeopardy? That is stupidity on steroids. And anyone that advances that notion is irresponsible and frankly doesn’t belong in any position of responsibility. Because to put in jeopardy that full faith and credit, to say the United States of America is going to default on its debts, is beyond the pale.”
• Classified documents/security clearances: “We’ll do the announcement [Wednesday]. As chairman of the intelligence committee, I think I’ve communicated in the past with you my concerns about the issues of overclassification of our secrets. The fact that this brutal leak of this airman in Massachusetts…in terms of how he had access to a number of documents and the potential security leaks and harm he’s done to our nation; the question we’ve had of presidential documents… I’ve been working on a major piece of legislation that I’ll be announcing tomorrow, bipartisan, that will really take this issue on head on.”
• Sudan: “We have the largest Sudanese-American population, mostly located in Fairfax and Northern Virginia, of anywhere in the United States – and that Sudanese American population is growing…I’ve done two things in conjunction with a number of other Senators. One is request the State Department go ahead and extend and re-certify that Sudanese individuals here who are trying to come in from that conflict can receive what’s called TPS…Outreach to our government and other organizations to urge them in manner that’s, as safe as possible, to get back in to Sudan to provide that humanitarian relief”
• Student debt: “What happened if you consolidated your debt student debt and then you got divorced; in many cases we found spouses that were abusive to
  their other spouse and they would be the deadbeat, not pay the bills, and that remaining spouse would be stuck with a combined student debt. Didn’t make any sense.”