Video: Sen. Mark Warner Speaks with Roland Martin, Compares Trump to Orban, Says There Has to Be Accountability

See below for video and a few highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s fascinating, free-wheeling conversation with Roland Martin (at the Virginia Democrats’ “Blue Commonwealth Gala” on 6/27) – who summarizes the discussion as follows:

“Senator Mark Warner sits down with Roland Martin to unload on the Trump administration’s handling of national security, from a widely-mocked intelligence nominee to what he calls a vendetta against Black and women military officers. Warner also blasts the corruption around pardons, foreign gifts, and a $400 million plane, warning that unchecked power for two more years could seriously damage the country. He argues Democrats must clean their own house on ethics while fighting back.”

According to Sen. Warner:

• “This man, Mr. Trump, has no respect for national security. You know, we all know he doesn’t care about affordability, doesn’t care about the American people’s cost, but the idea that he would insult the literally tens of thousands of people work in the intelligence community by putting somebody [Bill Pulte] totally without merit in a position; the fact that he would be willing, you know, there’s a very critical intelligence tool called Section 702, he’s punting on that until he gets his voter disenfranchisement bill, the so-called SAVE Act. And he ain’t getting it. He ain’t getting that. No, there is no way, even with our Republicans, that that was a bridge too far.”
• “And then on top of that…the fact that for all the flaws of the American military, for African-Americans and women once it was opened up, this was a path based on meritocracy. And now that this guy Hegseth has got a vendetta against Black generals, flag officers, women, that makes us less safe as a nation when he demotes or gets rid of  people that have risen to their position by merit.”
• “This is not just about what’s morally right and fair. It is about the freaking security of our country. And anybody who is a Black, Latino woman, you know, we have to acknowledge rising to the military where there’s still that network, you have to still be twice as good. And the fact that finally things were starting to get adjusted where people of merit rose, and to bring back almost this Jim Crow approach, it doesn’t help the security of our nation.  We’re a nation that’s, you know, at least Virginia, we’re 20% Black in Virginia, we’re 9% Latino, 8% Asian, 52% women. It’s not just morally, but if if we don’t take care of everybody with a fair shot, the enterprise called Virginia is not going to do as well. “
• “…one thing that anybody that’s a student of history, you cannot bomb a country into submission. Remember we’re going to bomb North Vietnam into submission. You can’t do it. We were going to bomb Iraq into submission. Now we’re bombing. If you want to take over a country, you got to put troops on the ground. And no American wants to put troops on the ground. And one of the things that has been totally forgotten with the the normal [music] press coverage, the Iranian people, this is a country with a great culture and history, the current since since the um Ayatollah came in, they’re bad folks in terms of being, you know, religious zealots. But one of the things that Trump agreed to in the so-called memorandum of understanding, he said America would no longer try to interfere in Iranian affairs. This is the same Trump that during January when the Iranian people were out, hundreds of  thousands on the street saying, ‘we want a more free society.’ And Trump said, ‘don’t worry, we’ll be there.’ Now he’s basically saying, “screw you all; the Iranian secret police can kill all of you and we won’t have any effect.’ And that loses American credibility in a way that you can’t repair overnight.”
• “Listen. I was a business guy before I got into this stuff. I still believe in a fairer capitalism, not the one we got right now. But for all these business people who I know very well, they all say, ‘Mark, oh, we’re just trying to cut a little thing, we got to deal with the current.’ They are going to be held accountable. I got no interest in, you know, going crazy. But you cannot break the law with impunity this way and not have when we come back, some adjudication of selling out…If you just want to talk about the billion dollars of your money, my money, and your money that Trump is spending on ballrooms, arches, reflecting pool, when you think about the fact that he’s taken a $400 million plane from a country cutter, and when you think about the number of people who have been convicted, the Honduran president who got convicted for massive drug right issues and he got a pardon when We’re now blowing up speedboats in the Caribbean. This is not who we are as a country. I hope and pray. But if we don’t if we don’t right the ship, if we don’t vote in record numbers, people are going to basically screw up the system, the system is rigged to a degree, but if we can’t unrig it, people will give up.”
• “That may be the place beyond all of the political issues or voting issues or abuse of healthcare. The thing that may get him will be the corruption. You know, you don’t like making analogies not always great, but there was this guy Viktor Orban who was like the Hungarian Trump before Trump… and what finally turned the Hungarian people saying we are not going to allow this corruption. And I think a lot of folks who voted for Trump when they see this level of corruption, I think there’s a chance. But if Democrats come back, we can’t – Democrats are good talkers but oftentimes not good doers. So ultimately, if we don’t get stuff done that accomplishes people’s in lives, one thing Trump has done, he’s willing to break the glass in an awful way. the way he treats immigrants for instance, but if we don’t stand up and say first of all as Democrats we’re going to say nobody in Congress or president can trade stock, you know Supreme Court’s got to have an ethics and an age limit. We got to make sure that if there is another government shutdown the people that should suffer are Congress and their staff and the White House and their staff. Until we are willing to show we’re willing to self police ourselves, we’re not going to have credibility on that. The fact that we need to return to some ethics, you know, and one of the things that is I think that Democrats screw up on particular white Democrats sometimes is I shouldn’t they presume African-American community is very liberal; African-American community is one of the most conservative communities around on issues of faith and values and ethics, and we need to not just talk the talk, but walk this about telling the truth and respecting that it’s taxpayer money and acknowledging when we screw up that we screwed up.”
•  “The old school of, you know, get on local TV, get in the local newspaper, show up in church on the last Sunday in October for 15 minutes Isn’t going to get it. So, we have to communicate through tools in media like you. We have to communicate through social media in a way that, you know, there is in the city of Richmond, there is no real newspaper anymore. the historic African-American paper, the free press, has gone down. But even the Richmond Times Dispatch is gone. And unless you communicate with modern tools online and social media and one of the things I think is is going to change, we have to deal with influencers. But we need to be ahead of where I believe, Roland, politics will head. Maybe not this year, but next year and by 2028 where people will maybe not listen to their social media. they’re going to ask their chatbot. So, how do we make sure the chat bots are not based upon historic, you know, prejudice…And that’s why particular like on housing, if we feed in all of the historic housing trends that were totally discriminatory against people of color or immigrants, what’s going to come out is going to perpetuate that. this stuff around how we manage technology in a way that is fair-based. I think the AI stuff I spent a lot of time on this tonight. Data centers got to pay their way. These companies got to make sure we make a job transition because what is going to happen, my fear is is that the people who are going to get screwed the most are recent college graduates. And the people who are going to get screwed of those college graduates are first generation college growers because they don’t have the historic network where daddy or somebody else can help them. And though that first generation are rural white, black, Latino, and immigrant. And if we don’t get this right, were up the creek.”
• “I’m fascinated with Mamdani. I’ll be anxious to see whether he succeeds because mostly he’s been, you know, until the rent freeze, there’s not a lot of policy stuff, but you know, I’m a nerdy tech guy. Biggest thing we could do, we have a tax system and an accounting system that totally supports people investing in things like technology and stuff, not human beings. If we train and gave the same tax breaks for investing in a human being and if we could give an extra tax break for investment in a human being that may have come from a disadvantaged standpoint and call that investment even on a balance sheet an asset because now it’s viewed as an an expense. I know it’s nerdy, but we have to shift the whole paradigm on investing. If not, you know, we will have a world where I’m not sure humans are going to play the role they need to play. And that is going to happen at a rate. That’s the thing. Congress, Congress is so damn slow, but we can’t do a 2-year, 5-year study, right? We got to get our act together now.”
• “You know, the traditional way right now is go have people knock on door and drop you a piece of literature. I’m not even sure that works. We got to find a way where people can using the tools that people communicate, particularly young people. Where they can make a personal connection to somebody they know. I’m not sure the door knock and a piece of literature is the way to do. I’m not sure 100% what the right answer is. We got to try new things. And whether you agree with Mandami or not on his issues, we sure as hell ought to learn from his tactics.”