See below for video and a partial transcript (bolding added by me for emphasis of some key points) of Sen. Mark Warner, speaking earlier this afternoon, about the Trump administration hitting “a new low…What the administration did in the last 24 hours is corrosive not only to our democracy but downright dangerous for our national security. Yesterday, the administration convened a briefing for Republican senators and only Republican senators on the US recent US military strikes in the Caribbean.” I’ve never seen Sen. Warner so angry, and for good reason – this is wildly unacceptable, and every American should: a) be paying attention; b) be outraged. (I know, most aren’t doing “a” or “b,” but they should!)
“Let me just start by saying, in an administration, a world where it feels like every day a new boundary is broken, a new law is overridden and a classic procedure is ignored. But I think we hit a new low. Let me be blunt. What the administration did in the last 24 hours is corrosive not only to our democracy, but downright dangerous for our national security. Yesterday, the administration convened a briefing for Republican senators – and ONLY Republican senators – on the US recent US military strikes in the Caribbean. Along with that briefing, they shared the Office of Legal Council’s opinion that tries to lay out legal justification for those strikes. Again, they didn’t share it with Congress. They didn’t share it with the Gang of Eight, which is their responsibility. They didn’t share it with the Senate, but they shared it with one political party. That is not how the system is supposed to work. That is not how national security decisions are supposed to get made.
Matter of fact, just last week in a very classified secure meeting with National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He looked me in the eye and personally promised that we would have that Office of Legal Ethics position laid out. He said he have been delivered that day. Now, I’m not blaming Secretary Rubio because I know he left for the Middle East the next morning. But instead of honoring that promise, this administration chose to give this sensitive legal document to a select group of more than a dozen Republican senators. Not all on intel, not all, I think, even on armed services, on a purely partisan basis. Now, only when they got caught, only when word got out and senators started asking questions did they scramble to try make make things work. They said, ‘OK, we’ll give it just to Democratic members that gang of eight.’
This is not how the law works. This is not how Congress is supposed to act. This try to cover your tracks after this malfeasance still falls short of what the Constitution demands. And I’d say in any normal administration, somebody would be fired for this kind of abuse. So now this Office of Legal Counsel opinion should be shared with every member of the Senate, not just the Gang of Eight. Every senator – Democrat, Republican, independent – has a constitutional role to play when the United States uses military force and to make that review. It’s not optional. It’s our freaking duty.
When an administration decides it can pick and choose which elected representatives get the understanding of their legal argument of why this is needed for military for force and only chooses a particular party, it ignores all the checks and balances. We’ve seen this in other [areas], but one area I thought we could maintain some level of comity was around national security. But not from this crowd.
You know, this is not about procedure or process or even precedent. When you politicize decision making about putting our service members in harm’s way, you make them less safe. When it becomes a question of whether America’s going to go to war and use military forces becomes simply a tool for partisan back and forth, you not only weaken the bond with our troops, but you completely continue to weaken the credibility with our allies, which has been weakened so many times. You even got countries like the Dutch acknowledging they’re not sharing information with us as much as they used to in a public forum because they aren’t sure they can trust the Americans.
When you deny Congress the access the legal rationale for military action, you also do huge erosion of trust from our public. And again, as I’ve mentioned, you put do real harm to the people who serve. Truth is, our troops, when they’re going into an area that’s such a gray zone at best – and you’ve seen officers already appear to be fired because they’ve raised concerns – they deserve to know with with clarity, the legal reasoning of why they’re being put in harm’s way. And again, Congress has an oversight role here. This is US government 101. And frankly not to be divided and used as political pawns.
And the truth is as well, my Republican colleagues bear responsibility as well. You know, every senator, regardless of party, should have a say on how military force is used. And frankly, Congress has a right and obligation to understand the legal basis. You know, my proudest tenure has been on the intelligence committee and I am proud of its record. I’ve served under Democrats, Republicans, the chair of the committee. I can tell you Saxby Chambliss, Diane Feinstein, Richard Burr would have never allowed this to happen. So the question I got from my Republican senators, if you’re sitting in this room getting clearly what have been prior Gang of Eight level classified information, didn’t somebody raise their hand and say, ‘well, holy crap, where are the Democrats?’ Who was willing to say, you know, ‘isn’t there a constitutional obligation here?’ You know, it is about separation of powers. is for the folks who wave their constitution around, read the damn thing and then explain why you’d sit through that briefing and not call foul.
So I call on this administration to immediately provide not only the OLC opinion but as well as the secret target list as was briefed my understanding yesterday as well. And this ought to go to every senator, not Gang of Eight, not just the intelligence committee members. Now that they have already broken the seal, everybody needs to be read in. That is what Americans deserve. That’s what every senator deserves, not this cherry-picking or political purposes. The country deserves better. And we’ll see if anyone is willing to stand up and push back.
I don’t have any freaking idea [why the legal rationale is being hidden]. If you’ve got a valid legal opinion, wouldn’t you want to share it with every member? If you believe, as I think the administration does, that we know these guys are bad guys, wouldn’t you want to catch them and show the world the drugs and show their history of bad activities? The idea that they were afraid, I guess, of a War Powers Act and they’re going to cherrypick Republican senators and share it only with them. We’ve been doing this thing for a while. It’s never worked this way. And if we allow this kind of foul to take place, what happens next time? We’ve already seen just one last comment on this. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked. Only Republicans were called before the strike on Iran. So, we are starting a pattern now that says national security, which has always been the province of bipartisanship, it has been the province where particularly in the Senate we keep our secrets classified, they are blowing that all up…
…Now, and again, let me be clear, you know, I’ve worked, you know, well with Marco over many, many years. I was, you know, proud to support him for Secretary of State. He looked me in the eye and promised me this. I hope that he assumed that promise would be carried out before he left the country. And I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. But if some lackey in the White House said, ‘no, we can’t share that. We can’t open ourselves up to actual congressional oversight.’ In any administration, including Trump 1, that person would be fired.
… let me acknowledge, you know, Maduro is a bad guy. The drug gangs are awful. But if we have all of the evidence that I think the administration is representing, they ought to share that. Now, you got to protect sources and methods. I get that. But the idea that they’re going to kind of arbitrarily pick a dozen Republican senators to share this with and throw this into a partisan scrum. Where in the hell are my Republican colleagues who are willing to stand up and say, no, this is wrong?
…I wish the American government, frankly under President Biden, would have pushed much stronger when the Venezuelan people in an enormously courageous move voted in overwhelming numbers, close to 65% to throw Maduro out. And I think we missed an opportunity there. I would also say I am going to accept the analysis of our top intelligence professionals, who at least earlier this year said Tren del Aragua are bad guys, Maduro bad guys but did not see that linkage and they were fired because they wouldn’t bend their analysis to political purposes. And I can tell you major allies of America took note of that and basically said to me…what the hell is going on?
…I think they know they screwed up. But saying they screwed up, if they say they know they screwed up, fire somebody. But the question I’ve got is this is a pattern. Isn’t that a one-off? And where in the hell were my Republican senators who we have worked on everything in a bipartisan fashion? Why didn’t they say, isn’t this a little bit weird that we don’t have any Democrats in the room?
…The White House doesn’t clue me in on their political strategy. They don’t have to do that. They do have to follow the law. And you know…we did not receive a response from Gabbard. I’m not sure we’ve received a response from Gabard on any missing since she’s been in that office...We got a ham-handed, oh, maybe you’re right, whatever. I say bullshit. I say this is so outrageous…generally, I’ve been in hundreds and hundreds of these meetings, and almost all the time you can’t tell who’s Republican or Democratic because this is about our country’s national security. This ought to be our shared responsibility. The idea that we’re going to selectively give on a partisan basis only information about putting troops in harm’s way. You allow this precedent to stand and not only are troops made less safe, but our country’s made less safe. And who in the heck around the world is going to really trust us?
…I went to law school. I never claimed to be a lawyer. Smarter members than me on legal opinions have raised concerns whether if these strikes violate international law, could they be in jeopardy? That’s why you have an office of legal counsel that’s supposed to give the rationale. And dragging your feet – we’ve been asking for this not for days or weeks, but I think it’s been for months since they started – not sharing that is frankly unprecedented. Promising it and then only sharing it with Republicans. When when will there be such an abuse that people will say enough?…
…remember the Intelligence Committee… there’s only 17 of us in the Senate, there’s 27, I think, in the House. If we don’t do this job, no other senator, no other congressperson gets the right to do the same kind of oversight. You take that away and this is how without oversight, this is how the intelligence community gets in trouble. And I know the intelligence community, they want the oversight. This was not a pushback from any of the professionals because I think they want to have frankly all of us reinforce the fact that they need to be independent and speak truth to power. And I can tell you they are under such pressure at this point. I’ve never seen anything like this and again this makes America safe less safe…
…Maduro is a a bad guy, he is bringing down the Venezuelan people. But if there is an effort, if there is a United States policy to try to remove him, it sure as hell ought at least be shared with the Gang of Eight, if not you know, the intelligence committees at large. Any level of trust by these kind of antics is totally destroyed on this Office of Legal Counsel opinion and frankly on the targeted list. Every senator needs to get it and we’re going to keep pushing till it happens…
…They have drugged their feet, drugged their feet, drugged their feet, promised we’d get it, didn’t deliver, and then they share it with a select group of Republican senators only. This is not the way the systems to work…
…We have seen actions done by presidents which are like a single strike, a single action that circumstances warrant. nd generally speaking I think Congress defers to the president in a moment in time. But this is not some single action. This appears to be a policy that is being carried out over weeks and potentially months. There is no legitimate reason not to share at least the legal opinion, what the goals are with the American people frankly, not just the Senate. and I don’t think that is that basic criteria has been met…
...it couldn’t be more night and day between Trump 1 and Trump 2. You know, I remember when President Trump and Trump 1…I think the administration was considering a strike on Iran and President Trump to his credit went way beyond what was required. He had the senior leadership of the House and the Senate, not just from intelligence and the Speaker and minority leaders, he had 25 of us in the room and went through, he followed the law, he recognized that if we’re going to put Americans in harm way, harm’s way, it is required that Congress at least get a…all that is obviously out the window right now. And this makes America less safe. And frankly it further deteriorates relations with our allies, because if they’re saying, oh you’re telling me Congress gets no oversight on the actions of this president particularly when it appears to be a many week-long, maybe month-long campaign, and how do we trust him on anything?
…Bullshit…Listen, somebody needs to be held accountable for this. In Trump 1 and Biden and again following up on the kind of what happened with the Iran strike in the first place. You know, this is a cover your tracks, try to manage the fallout. Yeah. What do I tell people in Virginia about, you know… the carrier that has just been dispatched is homeported to Norfolk. I had questions this week from folks in Hampton Roads. Senator, tell us what’s going on. What’s our goal? What’s our objective? We’ve seen how this administration treats the safety of our sailors with the stupidity around Signalgate and not even treating classified information appropriately. The fact that we are putting potentially those sailors in harm’s way right now and they’re not even going to say what their legal justification is, let alone their policy justification? Is there no line that gets broken that people won’t say, enough? How much blind loyalty to this administration versus obligation to the American people will our Republican senators be willing to push back? And I give Mike Rounds credit, but I think somebody should have walked out of the meeting yesterday. I can tell you this. I would never participate in a meeting like that…
…I have raised the undermining of the independence of the IC for months in a SCIF in a place where we are confidential with each other, and frankly the reaction I get, is I get a lot of well you’re right Mark, and kind of a hangdog look. Well, this is more than than a response of, well, we just, you know, this guy’s the president, we’re just going to go along. This is against every norm of how national security policy has worked. And when we make it a partisan affair, bad things happen….
...the American people deserve better. Now, frankly, members of the Senate should expect better. And you know, some oops makeup session doesn’t cut it. My understanding is they want to simply offer this to the Gang. That doesn’t cut it. Every United States senator ought to be read in and until that happens, I don’t know how you even begin to rebuild trust.”
