Pretty quiet and relatively short press availability by Sen. Mark Warner this week. See below for video, as well as a few things that jumped out at me.
- On Signalgate, Sen. Warner said: “We still don’t know if the phones were ever collected and checked for malware… the bad guys don’t have to physically have [the phone]…I was down in Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach and Chesapeake on Saturday for town halls, and Virginians were rightfully pissed off at this careless behavior, because many in the crowds…knew folks who had been deployed on the Truman, the aircraft carrier that’s in the Eastern Mediterranean where the jet had taken off to strike the Houthis. And the fact that if this information had been discovered by the Houthis, they could have very easily or probably taken down American pilots and killed them…It appears that Mike Waltz and his team have sent out lots of detailed conversations over Gmail, which is not even encrypted. So will it take literally an American servicemember dying or being constantly put in harm’s way before we can get the answers of whether the phones have malware on them…[or] there’s going to be any consequences?”
- On TikTok, Sen. Warner said: “I don’t have all the details, I know there are at least four major bidders. But if the ending result is…where the algorithm, the secret sauce remains in Beijing, then the whole effort has been a farce, the whole effort has been a scam, the whole effort has been like so many of the Trump ventures that sound good, there’s nothing there. Because if the algorithm remains in Beijing, then those 150 million Americans are still going to be subject to the kind of propaganda manipulation that I can guarantee you the Chinese Communist Party will use in an adversarial way against America. So this disregard of our national security, from how they treat secrets to how we have to stand up to an adversary like China using this technology tool, this Trump Administration is getting remarkably awful failing grades.”
- “In terms of so-called liberation day, self-proclaimed by Donald Trump, I think he’s going to announce his tariffs at a point after the markets close today about 4 o’clock. Well the truth of the matter is this liberation day is actually, I think, will be going down as tax day for Americans… so when those prices go up, just remember it was Donald Trump’s liberation policies that are actually increasing taxes on America that’s going to make your costs go higher.”
- “I talked to [Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney] the other night and this guy, if anybody can carry Canada through a recession will be him. But he pointed out not dissimilar to what the foreign minister of Canada pointed out to me a month or so ago, if Donald Trump got up today and said hey, you know, no problem, we love Canada, well you can’t put this relationship back on an even level – this will affect our relations for years to come.“
- “I have to say with a little bit of trepidation the fact that I’ve not had more Republicans who’ve all said to me privately I’m aghast at what’s happened with these Signal chats, I’m aghast that there’s not better security concerns, but they haven’t found their voice to do that publicly. That does not bode well.“
- “[Sen. Tim Kaine’s bill blocking Trump’s tariffs on Canada] actually only needs 51 votes, so assuming all 47 Democrats, that means you got to get four – I think there are more than four Republicans who’ve expressed concern. But we have seen, and I saw this for example on the Tulsi Gabbard hearing where I thought I had four Republican Senators who were going to vote no on her, and I know they would wish they would have those votes back now since she seems to be a compulsive liar, but I have to give it you, through threats so far people have not been willing to actually vote their conscience, they’ve fallen into this complete subjugation to Donald Trump’s whims.”
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