Video: Sen. Mark Warner on Why Virginians Should – and Will – Overwhelmingly Reelect Sen. Tim Kaine; Says Next Few Days Could Be “as tense as anything we’ve seen in recent modern American history”

See below for video and highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s press conference this morning, in which he made the case for reelecting his frieng and colleague Sen. Tim Kaine; shared his views on the state of the presidential race and what the outcome might mean for U.S. domestic and foreign policy; etc. (by the way, there’s some weird background music in part of the first video – not sure how that got in there or how to get rid of it!)

• “I see every day what a good man Tim Kaine is. I think that’s why he’s got such broad-based support. I think that’s why he’s leading this election, based on the polls, in double digits. A lot of that is due to the fact that he’s always an independent voice for Virginia…time and again, Tim is there for Virginians whenever they’re in need. I think about his trip and some of the activities he and I and the governor of others have taking place in terms of making sure that folks in Southwest Virginia are being able to recover from from the hurricane. His opponent, I won’t call his name, but his opponent has had a very different approach it’s totally embraced the MAGA agenda; it appears that he would support a national abortion ban. And one of the things that I frankly don’t understand but his opponent continues to denigrate and degrade rural parts of Virginia…frankly, parts of the Virginia that Tim and I have always gone and campaigned in even when we’re not successful in winning the majority of the vote…[Also Kaine’s] opponent’s willingness to basically not to call out what an enormous effect it would have if Donald Trump were to be elected and 150,000+ federal employees were suddenly to be put out of work.”
• “In these closing last 36 hours, thank goodness I think we’re we’re finally near the end on the national stage…I feel much much better about where the Harris campaign is today than a week ago. I think we’ve seen a series of of late-breaking voters moving towards Harris. A lot of that is due to her message that  rather than having a list of grievances, she will work for the American people. But it’s also been I think exacerbated by, at the most complimentary, just the bizarre actions of Donald Trump in this last week, whether we see his comments about Liz Cheney, whether his talks about the media in terms of how people would have to shoot through them, his – I don’t even know how to describe on a family Zoom – his actions with the microphone the other day. And then, in this late-breaking activity, he’s embracing Robert Kennedy’s view…to take fluoride out of our water; I’m not sure that is a top national issue. But if those are the issues that the Trump series of grievance campaign is going to end up, I think it bodes well for for Kamala Harris.”
• “I continue to be very concerned as chairman of the intelligence committee about what we may see in these closing hours. We’ve obviously lots of reports about the wave of Russian disinformation, the greater use of deep fakes. I  believe we will see a lot more of that later today and tomorrow. I think it may even get worse after the polls close on Tuesday night. The ask I make of Virginians…take a deep breath, if you see something on the internet, just because you see it on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true. And if you see something that just seems too outrageous, take a moment and and check another site, because chances are if it’s too outrageous…it probably is not true. But I have high confidence in the integrity of our voting system in Virginia as well as across the nation. We will get through it. But I can imagine these next few days are are going to be as tense as anything we’ve seen in recent modern American history.”

• “The rest of the world is watching this election with baited breath. I think we saw with…some of the isolationist policies of the first Trump administration, the rest of the world without strong American leadership tends to wander. And if anything, those figures in the first Trump Administration who were saying stay in NATO, stay strong in terms of our alliances, have basically all been disappeared…leading national security officials under President Trump – his chief of staff John Kelly, his secretary of defense John Mattis, his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley – all three have said they don’t want Trump back in the White House; that is unprecedented…I think because they believe that the a second Donald Trump administration will even be more isolationist, will potentially withdraw from our alliances and that will make the world a more dangerous place, not just in terms of standing against Russian aggression in Ukraine, which could very easily if you would get a green light move into the Baltic states and Poland and literally start an Article 5 breach. It could mean in terms of not building up strong alliances to counter China…I’ve spent a lot of time recently on the conflict that where more people are dying every day than Gaza and Ukraine combined and that is the bloody conflict in Sudan, and we’ve heard from Donald Trump the complete disdain he has for Africa…Kamala Harris I think you will have someone that realizes America has to lead will continue to lead. And whether from Tim’s position on the Armed Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee, Tim Kaine…understands that America is strong not just because of our military but because of our alliances and our continued investments in technology…we are in a competition particularly with China about national security…that’s more than tanks and guns and ships and planes – Tim Kaine understands that, I think I understand that, I think Kamala Harris does, I can’t say so much the same about Tim’s opponent or for that matter Mr. Trump.”

• “The bad guys know that disinformation, misinformation is effective and it’s cheap. And unfortunately, the social media companies – even the responsible ones, and I say that with air quotes around that – like YouTube and Facebook, they have cut back dramatically the amount of content moderation on a normal basis. And then you have X, where you’ve got literally the owner of X being one of the biggest perpetrators of disinformation around. And then don’t even get me started on Tik Tok. So it’s coming. So far it has not been at the kind of, the ability to flood the zone that we thought might happen. But I think, again, I’m going to keep warning people and if I appear on Thursday of this week and you can say Warner, you were overreacting, I’ll be more than happy to eat all my words.”

• “[If Democrats hold the US Senate], I think the legislative priority for the Democrats and the Senate will be continuing to make sure that we bring inflation down, that we lower costs…providing more housing and affordable housing around the Commonwealth and around the country…The other issue I know that the Democrats in the Senate will take on will be the cost of child care; child care costs rise exponentially, we’re going to need some new thinking about that. The child tax credit is one component, but we also have to look at ways that we can bring down the operational cost on child care. And I know Tim and I both will continue to look, on the National Security domain, I can tell you that we’ve never faced a challenger like China. And let me say China is a great nation and my beef is not with the Chinese people, it is with the Communist Party of China. But in technology domain after technology domain, China is competing with us…”

• “I think in terms of why folks are turning out for Tim [Kaine], one is clearly women’s health care issues, abortion rights are a huge motivator at the national, senatorial and the congressional races. Why I think the three open seats – Virginia’s 10th, Virginia’s 7th and Virginia’s 2nd, the most contested – I think we’re going to do very well, the Democrats will do very well. But at the end of the day, I think particularly what is motivating folks to vote for Tim is Virginians know him. He served as their Lt. Governor, their governor, their Senator now for 12 years. Anybody who knows Tim knows that he is about service. He is not some over-the-top partisan warrior and I think that is reflected…I’m surprised you guys haven’t asked yet about his Saturday Night Live appearance, I mean Tim can poke fun at himself a little bit. But I can tell you one thing, people in Virginia know who Tim Kaine is, they like what he’s done, and that’s why they’re going to reelect him with an overwhelming margin come tomorrow.”