Video: Sen. Mark Warner Rips “Nihilist” “Extreme MAGA Crowd,” “Circular Firing Squad” of House Republicans Hell Bent on “tak[ing] down our government or try[ing] to cut off our commitment to our allies”

In this week’s media availability, Sen. Mark Warner had some interesting things to say on Ukraine, a possible government shutdown, etc. See below for video and highlights, including:

• “Stop me if you’ve heard this movie before…we are, it feels like, lurching towards a potential government shutdown at the end of next week. We saw again, complete chaos on the floor of the House, where the majority can’t seem to muster people together to do anything…in this case, we have the president, the Senate Republicans, the Senate Republicans, the House Democrats, and I think if there were ever a vote, probably a majority of the House Republicans…but this extreme group of MAGA crowd…they act like there will be no effect on our economy or on the Commonwealth.”
• “There’s no state on a per capita basis that is harder hit during a shutdown than Virginia…I just don’t get anyone who’s calculating that somehow this is in the country’s best interest or even their short-term political interests. We’ve seen the American public follows this close enough to figure out who’s to blame, and the blame lies solely at this point with a small group of House Republicans….This is…stupidity on steroids, but that seems to be where the crowd that’s driving the House is driving us straight towards the cliff.”
• “There is an effort by this MAGA crowd to try to walk away from [the deal President Biden made with Speaker McCarthy]. That group of individuals who want to walk away from our country’s commitments is also on display as we go through the need for additional funding for Ukraine. President Zelenskyy…made the case that the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian armed forces have done remarkable work. But the idea that at this moment in time, the United States would walk away from Ukraine, is completely unimaginable in my mind…The Ukrainians in this war have already taken and decimated Russia’s military ability…and we’ve done that without the cost of a single American life or a single NATO soldier…So let the Ukrainians finish taking down the once-vaunted Russian military.”
• “President Biden has done a good job of rebuilding the credilibity of NATO…If we were to walk away from those commitments now [to Ukraine], no nation would trust America again, literally for decades, and they’d have a reason not to.”
• “You have to be an idiot not realize that if Putin is successful in Ukraine, that gives the green light to President Xi in terms of his aspirations in Taiwan…because clearly, if we pulled out of Ukraine, who would think that we would think that we would stand up for any of our allies in Asia?”
• “I would not be supporting compromising Ukraine’s future and America’s global reputation to buy off some extremist votes. I have absolute confidence that if you put continued funding for Ukraine on the floor of the Senate, you’d get 75-80 votes; I believe you’d get over 300 votes in the House. I just hope that the House leadership at some point starts thinking about the *nation’s* long-term interest, both economically…but also in terms of our presence around the world and our military…The idea that we would walk away from that commitment because of a few extreme, loud voices would be crazy…I implore the House leadership to do what’s in the interest of our country, not simply short-term interests to buy themselves another 24-48 hours.”
• “So I’m still optimistic, but the clock is ticking, and it feels like the House is spending more time amongst the Republican conference at least with a circular firing squad than actually thinking about how we keep the government operating…The vast majority of folks in both parties are not going to watch idly while a small group of extremists try to take down our government or try to cut off our commitment to our allies…the kind of nihilist approach of let’s just burn the house down, I sure as heck hope that voters, regardless of party, if this comes to pass, will remember who lit the match.”