Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says That on Day 23 of the Government Shutdown, He’s “amazed, astonished, and beyond disappointed that President Trump is going to leave the country for the second time during the shutdown and go off to Asia for almost a whole week.”

See below for video and highlights (bolding added by me for emphasis) from Sen. Mark Warner’s weekly press availability, held earlier today.

• “You know, we’re in day 23 of this government shutdown, and frankly, I’m amazed, astonished, and beyond disappointed that President Trump is going to leave the country for the second time during the shutdown and go off to Asia for almost a whole week. I mean, what about his whole notion that we’re going to make America great, that we’re going to put America first? You know, he may [have] important international activity. give him credit for what he’s done in Gaza, but somehow chasing these international meetings that that is more important than sitting down with his political opposition in America and hammering out a deal that avoids the shutdown or avoids the healthcare cliff and gets the government reopened is the height of irresponsibility. You know, for an administration that’s already been just plain cruel to federal workers and contractors, for him to jet off now to international meetings, which means that it’s virtually impossible to get this shutdown resolved, because no Republican will do anything without Donald Trump’s blessing, and he’s going to be out of the picture for another what, seven, eight, nine, 10 days? How does that make America great?”
• “The only thing that maybe is more insulting is the Speaker of the House, who’s kept the House of Representatives on a paid vacation for over a month and won’t come back to DC. Well, all of this debate is finally coming to a head. You know, I’ve talked to you guys time and again about the dramatic increases in health care costs that Virginians are going to see, cited average family in various locations and in many cases seeing their their rates double. Well, it’s now not hypothetical. The State Corporation Commission yesterday started sending out notices. And this is a an example of something I’ve already got just in the last 24 hours. I believe it was this morning. a breast care survivor in Virginia Beach who currently pays I think $248 a month and is going to have, even with the tax subsidies still in place, just because of the overall cost, are going to see her costs go up $285 a month now to $453 a month. If the subsidies are not increased, her cost will go up to $1,018 a month for healthcare coverage. And if you’re a breast cancer survivor, you can’t take the risk of going without healthcare. But when Virginians – and I think are seeing hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollar increases on a monthly basis -you know, the reality of that is going to be they’re either going to have to, you know if they’ve got kids, maybe give up sports camp or give up music lessons. You know, maybe the furnace doesn’t get fixed. Maybe the car payment isn’t made. Maybe you got to figure out whether you can meet rent costs and health care costs. And this is kind of math, but what it’s going to also do is drive a whole lot of Virginiaians to say, you know what, I just can’t afford healthcare insurance anymore. And when that Virginia doesn’t have healthcare insurance and goes back into the bucket of the uninsured, and this is something I know a lot about as the original founding chair of the Virginia Healthcare Foundation, where we’ve tried to deal with this uninsured problem for years, what that Virginian’s going to do when he or she gets sick, they’re going to show up at the emergency room, which as we all know has some of the most expensive care in our whole health care system. And that cost, which is called uncompensated care, is going to be passed on to all the rest of us who have traditional health insurance. So this health care cliff that people are seeing the reality of, 24 plus million Americans, notices going out in Virginia starting yesterday, is now a stark reality. What are you going to do? Health care, rent, pay for your kids’ education? That’s the very real choice that Americans are  going to face. And why we can’t kick the can on this when my Republican friends say, ‘oh, we can deal with this at the end of the year.’ Baloney! This is a reality now. So, Donald Trump ought to stay home for a day or two, sit down with us, get the government open, get a plan to avoid this cliff so that people are not thrown into this marketplace literally November 1st, with absolute horrific results.”
• “And let me say as well that, on November 1st, it’s not just healthcare. We’re going to see some of the SNAP programs, the food nutrition programs start running out of dollars. And this comes on top of the Big Ugly Bill earlier this year, which is going to cut food benefits literally for millions of Americans. That’s going to get worse because of the shutdown, starting November 1st. So is this really the right way we want to treat  our fellow Virginians and fellow Americans? I think not. I think we can do better. Donald Trump should stay in America and put America first and sit down with us, because the congressional Republicans can’t do anything without his blessing, and get the government reopened and make sure that we avoid this healthcare cliff which is now a reality not just in Virginia but all across the country.”
• “There’s already a huge amount of pain. I’ve see this with federal workers. I see this with federal contractors. I’ve voted seven times to reopen the government that also addresses the rising healthcare cliff. Today we’re going to put forward an effort to say, because Senator Johnson from Wisconsin is basically saying, ‘well, let’s let’s pay some federal workers and let the president and Russ Vought pick who to pay’. I wouldn’t trust Russ Vought to pick my worst enemy. But we’re saying no, let’s pay everybody, federal workers, contractors. we’re going to have that choice literally in a few moments. And now we’ve got I think what the Republicans were hoping was that they would somehow get the health care crisis off the table and punt on it. But now that people are going to get these notices and freak out when they see their cost increases. I mentioned the the lady in Virginia Beach, a breast cancer survivor, or I’ve cited many times, I think it was a couple in Chesterfield, early 60s, they’re going to see their rates go from, I think it was $800 and some odd dollars to over $2,000 a month. So, what it’s going to take, I think, is not additional pain. And frankly, you know, the state’s responsibility to help fund the SNAP program. I know they’re going to get stretched. So, I’d urge the governor to go ahead and tell the president to stay in town, put America first, and resolve this. You know, the choices are clear. It could be resolved in an hour, but it’s not going to be resolved, unfortunately, by congressional Republicans, because they are not going to do anything without Donald Trump’s approval. Unfortunately, in my view, there is no longer a Republican Party. There is a party that follows the beck and call of Donald Trump. I think that’s the only way this is going to get resolved. And that’s that is so nontraditional or non-typical, having been part of every bipartisan gang of the last decade, that there can’t be an independent solution that doesn’t involve Donald Trump is my fear.”
• “I’ve had a couple issues where they need 60 votes, where I’ll have meetings with the White House, but the failure for example of this president – you know, he’s met more times with Vladimir Putin I believe…than he’s met with Democratic leadership. I know he’s met more times with President Zelinskiy in Ukraine than he’s met with Democratic leaders in the first 10 months of this administration. That’s just not normal.”
• “And the disappointing thing is we’re not even going to get a vote to be able to show how much not only solid Democrat support to pay everybody, which is the law, by the way, but also include contractors. We’re not going to get a chance to put that on the board because I think frankly, there’d be an awful lot of Republicans supporting that as well. But again, let’s acknowledge paying folks is critically important. Absolutely critical. But if the government stays shut down, those SNAP benefits are still going to be in trouble. So, we’ve got to get the government reopened and we got to get it reopened and not allow this healthcare cliff which starts literally next Saturday, make sure it doesn’t come to pass.”
• “I am very proud of UVA and all of the universities for rejecting…the so-called Compact, which frankly would have I think had us lose at UVA some of our top professors. I know there were estimates at MIT, for example, that didn’t sign the compact as well that they’d lose about 40% of their top faculty. That would be a national security disaster if we lost that at UVA or at MIT, particularly in areas where we compete with China. In terms of the the agreement about the other suits, I’ve not had a chance to fully review that. I think Jim Ryan got driven off inappropriately. I think the threats that the administration made towards the university, I think the university had fulsome answers. They didn’t I think get delivered in time, frankly, because I think some of the current board didn’t want that to happen. So, I’m not going to weigh in on the settlement, because I’ve got to review it first. But on the Compact, UVA and I thank the president and the board at UVA for standing up and doing the right thing.”
• “…I’ve been to every food bank in Southwest. They do remarkable work. But if this happens with not getting your SNAP benefits and you’re driven off of health care, the emergency rooms and the food banks just cannot handle that effort. And frankly, Southwest Virginia voted strongly for President Trump. I would hope those voters would say, ‘President Trump, stay home and get this resolved.’ And by the way, it would also be great to have the House of Representatives back in town rather than getting this taxpayer-paid vacation, which is pretty awful in my mind.”