Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says Trump “gets to make appointments, but then the Senate gets to advise and consent. That’s in the Constitution. Unless we’re starting to throw out the Constitution”

See below for video and highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s press availability earlier today.

• “I just came from the floor of the Senate where one of those days that kind of makes your your head explode. I’ve worked with the two senators from North Carolina to come up with a bipartisan bill that would try to deal with some of the hurt that’s taking place across our country from Hurricane Helene before we broke for the elections…Today, Tom Tillis and I had bipartisan legislation that would refill that bucket and make sure that folks in Southwest Virginia who were waiting for those SBA loans – I think about particularly Damascus, a little town that entirely depends on tourism from the Creeper Trail; those businesses don’t get these loans, they’re going to close up shop and that town is going to hit really hard…this isn’t charity, this is your right as a taxpayer to count on these programs…We asked for unanimous consent and one grandstanding Senator [Rand Paul] stood up and objected, so getting those folks the money they have qualified for is going to take a bit longer…we had a chance to do this quick today in the Senate, it didn’t get done – pretty darn frustrating…The remarkable thing at least in terms of Southwest Virginia is that this region overwhelmingly voted for the president-elect. What kind of backhand signal is that when his allies or some of the people trying to stop these resources?” 
• “In terms of the other news of the week, obviously…some of the Trump appointments… I know most of you know, but there is a reason that we have a Senate confirmation process…President- Elect Trump won the race, he’s got a right to put forward his candidates, they have a right to be considered, but when you have that advise-and-consent process, a candidate gets to be vetted in terms of their background…the hearings on these nominees are public…I can tell you as chairman of the intelligence committee, we live in a very very dangerous time, and you’ve got Russia and Ukraine; you’ve got Russia’s aspirations in terms of maybe further expansion; you’ve got their intervention in spreading misinformation around our election time….I’ve talked many times before about the rise of China…We’ve got enormous challenges both international and domestic, so the jobs of Attorney General or Director of National Intelligence or Secretary of Defense – the biggest management job in America, the Pentagon workforce is bigger than Walmart – are serious jobs and require serious people…I don’t agree with Marco [Rubio] on a whole lot of issues, but he does bring a level of seriousness to the important job of Secretary of State. There have been a few others that I think have fallen in that category. But there’s some that we need that vetting process and any attempt to drop names that couldn’t get through a vetting process or couldn’t get through an open hearing in some form of recess approach would be totally counter to the way our system works.”
• “The president doesn’t have the arbitrary power to shut down departments…Congress has to pass that kind of legislation. My hope is that we will act responsibly; if there’s ways to bring more efficiency to government, count me in. When I was governor, Virginia was named independently the best managed state. But Business 101 says there is value in having adjacency of departments in the federal government. I can tell you from the intelligence standpoint, having the CIA, the NGA, the NRO, the Director of National Intelligence, the NSA over the river in Maryland, the value of having those intelligence professionals be able to get close to each other and go back and forth is enormous. Anybody that makes a case otherwise of trying to split this up and around doesn’t…pass Business 101. In terms of numbers, arbitrarily taking a hack to the government workforce, which will simply mean in many cases we’ll just supplement that same purpose…with contractors ends up costing more money…willy-nilly, arbitrary hacking at government isn’t going to be efficient, isn’t going to be effective and we will fight back with every tool we’ve got. And I would point out…I saw a posting yesterday from someone that was supposedly in the Trump orbit, it was not official, saying well we got to just go ahead and by arbitrarily pick by Social Security number whether you’re an even number or odd number I think it was and just eliminate workers that way. I mean that kind of approach and this arbitrariness or the notion we’re going to suddenly take $2 trillion out of our government spend shows a a disconnection from reality if you’re not also willing to tell the American people which government services are you no longer going to provide.”
• “I know former Congresswoman Gabbard. There have been lots of reports about some of her ties to countries that are very unfriendly to the United States. That’s why we do, particularly for this role, there’s a background investigation that’s what is done with every nominee whether you’re a Democratic president, Republican president. I think it needs there needs to be a thorough vetting. I’ve got a a lot of questions about Ms. Gabbard, but that’s why we have an advise-and-consent process, that’s why we have a these hearings even for the Director of National Intelligence at least most of it is done in the public. And some of these claims of her ties to adversaries like Russia and Syria, there’s got to be both knowledge and explanation of that. And I have…grave reservations, but I’m going to again give the president-elect, we’ll go through that process. And I’ll be at that point the vice chair of the committee, but one of the things that I’ve been very proud of whether I’ve been vice chair or chair is, I believe, the Intel committee is the last fully functioning bipartisan committee – we take our roles very responsibly, and I’ll expect that to continue for the committee.”
• “And in terms of the recess appointments, I will simply take all of what my Republican colleagues said about recess appointments back in I believe 2012, when President Obama tried to on a couple to do that; I hope they will live by those same concerns they had back then. And, you know, these are extraordinarily serious jobs. The idea that you’re going to put people that potentially are unqualified or unable to get a majority even with a Republican Senate and somehow drop them in these most important serious jobs that we have in our federal government would be irresponsible.”
• “I don’t know Mr Gaetz; I would be curious to see whether he could get even a majority of the House Republicans who’ve actually known and worked with him for years. And I think you’ve seen kind of the word that…we all had was ‘wow’ when that was announced. Again, I’m not going to weigh in on these on an individual basis as they get named. There is an advise-and-consent, we’ve got to have hearings, they’ve got to be open. And you know I was a governor, I made appointments, the chief executive gets to make appointments, but then the Senate gets to advise and consent. That’s in the Constitution. Unless we’re starting to throw out the Constitution, I hope the president elect adheres to that.”
• “I’m not going to get into [Pete Hegseth’s] individual statements at this point. I respect his service; he was a decorated veteran and I respect his service. But just from the plain management standpoint…would you turn over the reins of the whole corporation of Walmart over to him, because that’s the kind of management challenge you’ve got that lies ahead of him. I think at this moment in time when we have so many challenges to our national security, where our defense department needs to be at its best, we’ve got to have individuals who’ve got the experience, the knowhow, the ability to…work candidly with both the civilian defense workforce and the military defense workforce and I think that individual has got a tough road too to make the case that he’s got those qualifications.”
• “My head’s spinning [about the Matt Gaetz nomnination] and I don’t know very many responsible leaders of either political party that thinks that we would be safer or more secure from both domestic crime or international violations by getting rid of the FBI or the idea that…we should get rid of the government’s ability to, for example, a lot of what the Department of Justice does is respond to lawsuits, so I know what I’ve heard from Mr Gaetz is he’s very unfriendly to things like environmental protections, when somebody sues the government, who defends the government against something that he might even view as an overreach? It’s the Department of Justice! To kind of make those comments in my mind shows I don’t think he understands the basic functions of this department. So again, let’s let’s see how this vetting process goes through, but what I am concerned about is that by throwing out unserious individuals for some positions that he’s going to put such a fear in the government workforce that the most talented in our workforce, the folks who’ve got the most expertise, may decide it’s time to hang up, retire, leave. And if we were going to suddenly then say all of those functions we’re going to get rid of, I wouldn’t agree with that, but if we don’t get rid of those functions, they’re going to have to be replaced, we’re not going to provide that level of service. There are ways to bring efficiency and I did that when I was governor of Virginia – count me in. But to take a hacksaw without much thought to our federal workforce would not save us money, it would have literally much longer implications to the operations of the federal government beyond this current president-elect’s term. And it would be devastating not only to the greater Capital Region but to the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
• “I’ve advocated for a long time that workforce – public sector, private sector – ought to be back in the office. That doesn’t necessarily mean five days, but it does mean a lot more than we’ve got right now…because candidly, if there are departments that are only in a day a week, then the ability to say there’s value in having them adjacent to each other and combined goes down dramatically. If you can say, well, we can take, you know, this part of the Agriculture Department and put it…somewhere in the midwest or in the west. So I think it is in all workers – public sector and private sector’s – best interest as much as possible to get back to work in the office. I’ve had that…rule in my office…probably earlier than some of my staff like, but I felt like I work for eight and a half million Virginians, many of whom even during the midst of the pandemic didn’t have the option to work remotely. And I think from an efficiency standpoint and…particularly for younger people, ability to collaborate and learn a lot better is done together. Now can there be some exceptions, can there be some flexibility? Yes. I just fear that I’ve been pressing the administration for the last year plus; I wish we were further down this process.”
• “If we’re going to be able to power our economy, especially if you care about carbon emissions and and the changing climate, solar and wind are important, batteries important, but we’re going to have to bring back nuclear power. And I’m working very closely with the governor on that…this is a national security issue, it’s it’s good for powering America, carbon free, but it’s also we are in competition with China and Russia – China’s building 30 reactors currently and they’re going to go up to 50 reactors…just as we were so long dependent upon Middle East oil, that is not good for America. We’ve got to build and operate small modular nuclear – it’s important for energy, it’s important for national security and it would be the height of irresponsibility – just one more example coming out of that Project 2025 book, the IRA…one of the things I think you got to give the Biden Administration credit on is the IRA funding in terms of whether it’s battery technology or whether it is solar panels, most of that has gone to states that voted many cases overwhelmingly for President Trump. You’re going to shut down those manufacturing facilities? And then finally on offshore wind, Virginia will have the largest offshore wind operation on the East Coast…Wind has gone up and down a little bit over the last couple years, but it is clean and sustainable and ultimately if we get to scale, I believe affordable. And because Virginia is the lead in this, as we think about the manufacturing components that go into offshore wind, we can be the country’s leader. It’s going to be ironic, I think, whether it is on any of these issues – Elon Musk who I know is quite close to the president at least at this point, he depends on a lot of those government subsidies to have his Tesla operations; there’s lots of other resources that have gone into offshore wind and obviously into nuclear. Not having a mixed energy commitment that would include these carbon free, I think would be a mistake. And I even heard that the current CEO of Exxon, the world’s largest oil producer, has said that he thinks all of this diversification of our energy system… all of the above is important, and to somehow to withdraw this movement…it would be not good for the planet but it also would not be good for American business over the long haul, because this is where the future of energy in the world is headed, and we need to have American competitors and American players in that sector.”