See below for video and a few highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s weekly press availability, held earlier today (bolding added by me for emphasis of key points).
- “If this feels like Groundhog Day to you, it feels that way more to me. We’re in another week of the Trump and Republican-induced shutdown. The president’s paying so little attention to this shutdown that he’s running around Asia; I thought he was going to put America first. And the House of Representatives is now on I think its longest paid vacation in modern American history, which is not a good sign when we should all be at the table negotiating to get the government open, to make sure that we don’t have this healthcare cliff…Virginians have started to receive these notices…This doesn’t have to happen.”
- “And if this wasn’t bad enough, what’s also happening is that we know that SNAP is running out…food assistance. And remember, the Republicans already took a giant whack at food assistance in their big ugly bill this summer, and now to have these benefits expire – 42 million Americans and 100s of 1000s of Virginians – particularly when we all know that grocery prices have gone up double digits. I mean, Donald Trump was supposed to lower the cost of groceries. Instead, they’ve gone up. We all know if anybody’s bought candy for Halloween, how much more expensive it is this year than last year. There is a way to avoid this…Let’s end the shutdown. Let’s end the healthcare cliff. Let’s get in a room and get this done and stop putting Americans and Virginians through so much pain.”
- “…I think that is a crisis as well. All of this is eminently solvable. I think it could be done in a couple hours in a room. But my fear is that even though there may be some efforts to pay individual parts of the government, and I’ll take a look at those, but there’s going to be no real Republican plan unless Donald Trump’s in the room. That’s just that’s unfortunate. It further diminishes Congress…my fellow Republican gang members have all kind of said, ‘hey, we can’t do anything without the White House sign off.’ And I don’t think we’re going to get the White House sign off with Trump gallivanting around Asia. That is not putting America first. That is putting America last and Americans are going to pay the price for that.”
- “Listen, I think federal workers want to get paid. And I know there is an bipartisan effort that Chris Van Hollen and Ron Johnson are working on right now that would pay all federal workers, which by the way is the law. They shouldn’t have to suffer through this the president’s intransigence. So let’s see how those efforts, I think we’ll get a readout later today. I want federal workers to get paid. I also want him to get back to work, but that requires as well the the president to sit down and meet with us on healthcare because the one of the things that we have to be also cautious about – and I know I’ve heard from a lot of federal workers on on this topic – that if you do reopen government and then Trump continues to do these what called reductions in force, RIFs, or starts continuing to fire people illegally as one court has stated, then that’s not in the best interest of federal workers either. This can all be resolved, but I fear it’s going to take the president in the room.”
- “Well, I am worried about this order [to move the Norfolk-based USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean], because I don’t think the administration has been clear enough on what their goal is here. I mean, we all know that we want to end fentanyl traffic and drug trafficking in the United States. The vast majority of these drugs actually don’t come out of Venezuela. They come out of Colombia and Ecuador. We ought to be doing more interdiction there. And while…I’ve had classified briefs on this, they promised me their legal reasoning. And if these are boats with known criminals and drugs on them, they would strengthen their case if they interdicted them and showed the public both here and throughout the Western Hemisphere, here are the drugs, here’s why these are bad guys, as opposed to the kind of simply taking kinetic action. In terms of the overall movement, President Trump got hired because he was going to put America first and get us out of endless wars. I think if you look at the United States’ record under Democrats and Republicans alike in terms of military interventions into Latin America, the record’s pretty pretty bad. And, you know, the Maduro regime is a bad government. We should have stood up more for the Venezuelan people when they voted overwhelmingly to throw out Maduro a year and a half ago. But I have been very disappointed. Before we send sailors from Hampton Roads into harm’s way, the president needs to make clear what that mission is and how far he’s willing to go.”
- “I wish we could roll back the clock and not start this obvious political gerrymandering that started with the Texas redrawing of of the map. I understand Democrats want to keep all options on the table. This is a very involved process in Virginia, would actually require citizen weigh in, changing the constitutional amendment that provided for nonpartisan redistricting. But it is a sad commentary that each state seems to be arming up. But it’s equally, I completely understand the Democrats in Richmond saying we just can’t watch as as states all around us like North Carolina take action without even input of voters. So, the Virginia process will be better with input of voters than than other states. And in terms of the 2026 elections…you know, four or five months ago when people would ask me that question, I said, “of course, that’s a crazy question.’ I am increasingly worried about this president’s efforts to try to undermine the political process, to try to wipe out all opposition. And I hope the best message we can send on that, I’ve voted in this gubernatorial election, if we turn out in record numbers in Virginia and send a strong message that this is not the kind of America we want to live in. I think that message would be signified by a strong Abigail Spanberger victory. That would help maybe grow some spines with my Republican colleagues up here, because I know there are many of them at least are very concerned about this crass redistricting going on, but they’re afraid to speak up. Maybe a big win in Virginia will give them a little more courage.”
- “I think there’s a couple things and I remember getting hit with all this when I got elected [governor]. One, you realize you’ve only got four years. So, you’ve got to make every day work. Second, and I think this is the case for any governor, you’ve got to find a way to work with folks in both parties. I mean, even if we have a Democratic majority in the House, we’ve got one in the Senate. I still think it’s much better at the state level to see if you can find those bipartisan agreements – it means there’s more buy-in then from Virginians across the board. And at the end of the day, you know, one of the great things about being governor is you’ve got to get stuff done. It is less partisan than the kind of crazy back and forth up here in DC. So hire somebody that has got a record of getting stuff done, that can work with both sides. And I think Abigail Spanberger meets that criteria. She was willing to push against the Democrats on issues she disagreed with. I think she also brings that strong national security background which is so important in Virginia. So I know I voted, and I hope others will get out and and do the same. It will be nothing better to also show on a macro basis that efforts to try to cut back voter turnout, and that’s whether you vote for Spanberger or Winsome Sears. You know, I hope we have the largest turnout in an off-year election in Virginia history. That would be a great signal that our democracy is alive and well.”
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