See below for video and highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s weekly press availability (bolding added by me for emphasis of key points).
- First, Sen. Warner talked about a bipartisan bill (with Sen. Jim Justice from WV) he’s introducing, the “Childcare Supply Tax Act.” As Sen. Warner said, “I think we all know that the price of child care is one of the affordability issues that is really hurting people… So what my tax credit bill will do will go directly to those child care providers and can only be used for a salary increase um for those uh childare providers.”
- Second, Sen. Warner talked about the issue of “surveillance pricing,” in which “companies [use] “a wide range of personal data to set individualized consumer prices.” Sen. Warner said it’s “not fair,” so he’s urging Trump to prevent companies from doing this. Sen. Warner added: “The Biden administration using the Federal Trade Commission tried to do a study on this at the end of the Biden administration. The Trump administration of course shut that study down. So now a bipartisan group of senators are both trying to get this results of the study released, but also urging the president and as we saw last night his screech that barely mentioned affordability.”
- Third, Sen. Warner talked two pieces of legislation on Black Lung Disease – survivor benefits and increasing Black Lung benefits.
- Fourth, Sen. Warner talked about the unveiling of the Barbara Johns statue in the U.S. Capitol, and how he played a role (along with others – Sen. Tim Kaine, former Gov. Ralph Northam, etc.) in making that happen. Sen. Warner called it “a remarkable statute, a remarkable Virginia part of Virginia’s history.” He also noted: “Virginia went through Massive Resistance and many schools closed rather than allowing integration. And you know, our history in Virginia is we take a step forward, we take a step back, we come back forward again.”
- On Trump’s promise to give $1,776 to military members, Sen. Warner said “any kind of bonus to our military at Christmas time is good,” BUT asked where’s the money coming from? “They literally are taking it from military housing support, which gives at one end and takes away with the other.” Meanwhile, “servicemembers are in potential harm’s way with a possible war against Venezuela… but let’s let’s be honest here; they didn’t announce last night where they’re taking this money from is something that was in the big bill this past summer that was supposed to go to improvements in military housing. So, it’s great short term for the military. But let’s not pretend that this was some new initiative. They literally are taking it from military housing support which you know gives with one hand and takes away with the other. But the real question we’ve got, which he didn’t address last night – and we have literally hundreds of of sailors homeported in Norfolk who are down either assisting these boat strikes in the Caribbean or off the coast of Venezuela. I get questions. One, are these boat strikes legal? And two, is my son or daughter going to be involved in a war? And if the president who continues to try to tighten the screws on Maduro in Venezuela, why he didn’t use a national address to say what his intent is, whether he’s those young Virginians and Americans are going to be put in harm’s way on a war that he’s not made the case for, that the overwhelming majority of Virginians and Americans, I believe, oppose as irresponsible. Instead, we got a political screech from an angry man who’s increasingly disconnected from Americans. And the idea that, you know, he’s trying to sell Americans that their costs have not gone up, when they can see it at the grocery store or they see it with their energy costs or they see it with their housing or child care costs, it was a pretty stunning missed opportunity. And we still don’t know what the president’s plans are and I still can’t answer the the friends and families of those sailors what this president’s intent is as to Venezuela. And that’s irresponsible for commander-in-chief.”
- On AI, Sen. Warner said: “I think most of us in Congress and I would imagine almost a 100% of parents around the country realize that we screwed up when we didn’t put some guard rails on social media, and we have a whole host of mental health issues particularly young amongst young people because we didn’t put any guard rails in place and only now we’re catching up.” Sen. Warner then pointed out, “Social media is tiny in terms of its potential to disrupt compared to artificial intelligence….So I think we’ve got to put some basic safety constraints around AI so we don’t see what social media created in terms of mental health taken to an exponentially greater level.” Sen. Warner also warned: “there’s going to be five years, I think, of enormous job disruption. And where this is going to be particularly acute is those folks getting out of college that, you know, have those starter jobs at a bank, at a firm, you know, because all the big firms are cutting their first year hires in half and they’re going to cut them in half again next year. We’ve got 9% recent college graduate unemployment right now. I think that number could go to 25% within the next two to three years.” And: “There is more wealth concentration in AI than any industry we’ve seen. We see that with the billions and literally trillions of dollars worth of deals being made. So this question of job dislocation is going to be something I’m going to focus a lot on next year.”
- On a related note, Sen. Warner said about data centers: “we have more in Virginia than any other state in the country aren’t paying their fair share of their utility needs.” He added: “Dominion, I think, is working on something that’s forward leaning where, you know, if you add a AI data center, if there’s increased cost, those costs can’t be passed on to residential or business users. They have to be absorbed by the enormous power needs of these data centers. I think that is going to become not only a state issue, but a national issue.”
- Finally on AI, Sen. Warner asked, “Do I think the AI revolution at the end of the day will be positive?” The answer: “Yes. But there will be enormous challenges and disruption. And if we don’t get it right, I think you could see populist moves from both ends of the political spectrum against artificial intelligence, and that in the long run isn’t the right answer as well because who wins the AI race could very well dominate the 21st century – and I’d rather that be America than China.”
- On healthcare subsidies, Sen. Warner he strongly believes we need to avoid the “cliff” on January 1st, “which will disrupt 22 million Americans health insurance and hundreds of thousands of Virginians.” He added: “the idea that [House Republicans are] going to punt this until next year doesn’t make sense to me. But they had their chance. They had their chance to extend these subsidies and chose not to. “
- On National Airport, Sen. Warner said: “Tim Kaine and I have for years said that you keep jamming more and more flights into DCA, you’re going to have problems. Now, while there was not a direct correlation between the increased flights and this crash, the system is overloaded, and we’ve been saying that for years, and yet Congress still tries to jam more flights in to meet the personal needs of senators and representatives. It’s not fair or right to play with public safety that way. And I’m not surprised that there was an admission…and yet the Trump administration through DOGE efforts and threatening federal employees has driven down the number of air traffic controllers and FAA safety officials. That is again the height of irresponsibility.”
- On Trump’s speech last night, Sen. Warner said: “I think this president is categorically out of touch with working Americans. This is a president [who] would rather spend more time talking about tearing down the East Wing and his gold-studded ballroom or giving parties at Mar a Lago…and trying to go out and deny what Americans are seeing that health care costs are going up. And he said virtually nothing about that last night, that child care costs are going up. And unlike where I’ve got a bill to try to address part of that, he said didn’t address it. Grocery prices are going up, energy prices are going up and you know he’s got one line of excuse – I’m going to blame it on the last guy. I think Americans are tired of that kind of BS. I think they realize this is the Trump economy and people hired this president. He said he was going to bring prices down. He has failed miserably and his approval numbers and every election over the last couple months has reinforced this. Americans are not buying Donald Trump Show version two. And we are back now to the part where people are suddenly back to where they were at the end of the first Trump administration, realizing this guy talks a good game but doesn’t produce. And I think we’re starting to see some Republicans say, ‘well, maybe Trump isn’t the solution to every problem,’ and maybe they ought to grow a backbone. But I think the American people are going to vote overwhelmingly on Trump’s approach. And then let’s also take into consideration you know, we’re what a week away from Christmas, and there was nothing from Donald Trump last night that showed any level of empathy, any level of sympathy for folks who are struggling and no call at all to say, ‘hey, you know, we’re all Americans. we’re going to figure this out together, we’re going to get through these holidays.’ Instead, you saw an angry old man giving a partisan screech that doesn’t solve anything…And don’t take my words, take some of the Republican pundits who said it was the least effective presidential speech ever given.”
- Finally, Sen. Warner said:”…you know, whether it’s safety issues at Reagan, whether it’s safety issues around food safety, whether it is clean air and clean water, when you have a war on federal workers the way this administration has, when you disrespect them, when you try to cut them without any reason, that has a long-term ramification. What parent is going to say to their kid coming out of college, hey, go work for the federal government. Go work at the FAA or go be an air traffic controller when you’re under this much stress and this much attack. And what happens when we have that kind of full-on assault against federal workers? America becomes less safe. And that’s just a plain fact that I still don’t think this Trump administration acknowledges. And you don’t have to go much past Russ Vought, who is kind of the Darth Vader of the Trump administration, who made it clear that he wanted to terrorize and traumatize the federal workforce, which he’s unfortunately done a pretty damn good job of this year.”
********************************************************
