See below for video and a few highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s press availability earlier today. Also, a few notes of interest regarding Sen. Warner in the last day or so:
- He called out Trump’s “dark vision not only for our country but for our world”
- As the saying goes, Warner “revised and extended his remarks” (aka, he walked them back after getting a TON of criticism – like this from Ruth Ben Ghiat, one of the country’s leading experts on fascism and authoritarian leaders – for going on Fox “News” and praising Trump for supposedly bringing down illegal immigration numbers). This afternoon, Warner said “My words yesterday – they were not great, let me be the first to acknowledge that…I’d like to take them back.”
- Sam Altman, a wealthy tech entrepreneur who has donated to Democrats in the past but also gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, is headlining a high-dollar fundraiser for Warner on March 20 in San Francisco. This would seem to be a sign that Warner, who turned 70 in December 2024, is intending to run for reelection in 2026…
- “Last night, I sat through the longest State of the Union speech ever. And I got to tell you it was pretty painful…the fact checkers had so many falsehoods that they had to correct that that was a new record as well…most of the stock gains that came since his election wiped out because of these tariffs against…two of our closest Partners Canada and Mexico…. This was a guy that was supposed to be elected on the basis of bringing down um grocery prices; the opposite is taking place.”
- “I’m proud to join my friend of 40 years, Tim Kaine, where he’s going to contest… this national emergency declaration against Canada; does anybody really believe Canada is our enemy? And the truth is the data shows there’s more fentanyl – we need to end fentanyl coming into America but there’s more fentanyl going from America to Canada than vice versa…”
- “The one thing we did hear is Trump is going to double down on these actions, he’s going to unleash Musk even more; and I think that spells real economic chaos for Virginia, it spells enormous economic challenge for the whole country in terms of prices…”
- “One thing about veterans is they got great memories, and they are very strong in terms of advocating for the rights that they deserve; I mean, we have a sacred obligation for those men and women that have defended our country and their families to honor the commitment that we’re going to take care of for example their health care and other benefits they earned. And I can tell you this has already taken effect these cuts – we’ve seen a couple thousand veteran V.A. officials cut already…do you really think we’re going to get folks to come work there [at the new V.A. healthcare facility in Fredericksburg] when you see the threat of cutting back anybody that’s a probationary employee that means in the first two years? It is disrespectful to our veterans, it flies in complete face of the you-can’t-believe-what-Trump-says-look at-what-he-does. And…to make matters worse, about a third of our federal workers are veterans; we have the highest concentration of veterans per capita of anywhere in the country. So you’re getting a double whammy… it’s disrespectful to our veterans and they deserve better. And I hope this might be finally an issue where my Republican colleagues who love to say they support the military will actually speak up rather than cowering behind Elon Musk’s actions”
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