See below for video of Sen. Mark Warner on ABC News’ “This Week” (h/t to The Bulwark for capturing and posting the video):
- Question: “What is your reaction to this [Russia-Ukraine] peace proposal that is on the table?“
- Sen. Mark Warner: “My reaction is it’s awful. It would make Neville Chamberlain’s giving in to Hitler, the outset of World War II, look strong in comparison. The fact that this was almost a series of Russian talking points, would require Ukraine to give up the totality of the Donbas parts they still control, cut back their military forces going forward, never be able to join NATO. This would be a complete capitulation. And it’s why I think you’re hearing from Congress, both sides, people pushing back.”
- Question: “You’ve heard the deadline from President Trump, but then him saying that’s not there’s room for negotiation here, it seems like. So what do you think happened today?“
- Sen. Mark Warner: “It feels like this was a plan that they took almost entirely from the Russians. Did no consultation with Congress, no consultation with the Europeans, obviously didn’t read in Zelinskyy and the Ukrainians, and now they’re getting ferocious push back. So one more time, Trump is changing his deadlines. Of course, how he picked Thanksgiving to start with, I have no idea. But now even with this kind of this back and forth that it’s not really an American plan or is it an American plan, this is the kind of chaos that unfortunately represents so much of the Trump foreign policy.“
- Question: What do you think President Zelenskyy should do?
- Sen. Mark Warner: “Again, the Ukrainians have performed magnificently in the field. They are reinventing the nature of warfare in terms of the use of drones. To have this proposal forced upon them, or as I think Zelenskyy said Ukrainian dignity versus giving up a partner. I would hope the president would not be so weak as to try to force this plan on the Ukrainians and our other allies. I think it would send not only a horrible signal for Europe, but the person watching this probably most closely is President Xi in China. And if the Americans throw in their towel like on Ukraine, you can bet Xi is thinking this gives him a clear path in terms of taking Taiwan…Again, you have overwhelming support still for Ukraine. The last Ukraine aid package had 80% of the Congress. I think the president is seeing this one-sided plan kind of blow up in his face, with pushback from the the Ukrainians, from the Europeans, from members of Congress of his own party. And my hope is, he’ll come back and be a bit more reasonable.”
- Question about what Trump’s doing regarding Venezuela:
- Sen. Mark Warner: “Historically, the United States’s intervention in Central America or South America has not always old out the way we hoped. Maduro was a bad guy. Frankly, under Biden, when the Venezuelan people voted in overwhelming numbers, Biden should have put more pressure on getting Maduro out then. It was a mistake. But now to have this much armed forces. We have not been briefed on any military action that would have been authorized. He keeps putting word out maybe he has authorized, maybe not. We are are trying to get the answer on that. But there is a real question. To take this big a fleet, bring our largest aircraft carrier, put them there to further blow up boats that they claim have drugs on them? Frankly, they could have interdicted the boats and showed the world there were drugs. In terms of Venezuela, the legal opinion about the drug running doesn’t touch Venezuela at all. So the president would have to come back and brief us….The notion that Trump says he will talk to anyone, I think that is — I’m not going to critique him on that. If there is a way to push Maduro out. Remember, our government and 50 other governments, most all of western Europe, don’t recognize the Maduro government as legitimate. But it does not feel like there is an organized plan. And coming down again, America only, without any of our other allies in South America or Central America again seems not the right approach to me.”
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