See below for video and a few highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s press availability earlier today. Lots of questions on TikTok, and that’s certainly an important issue, but c’mon – there’s a TON of other important stuff going on in the country and the world, do we really need journalist after journalist to ask about the same topic, let alone one that’s probably not even in the top 50 most-important issues facing us right now?
- “I joined with I think the vast majority of Americans, probably the vast majority of folks in the world, celebrating the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza that will allow the hostages who were so brutally abducted on October 7th to be returned to their families, as well as for the level of ceaseless violence in Gaza to come to an end and many Palestinians to be able hopefully go back to their their more normal life and begin the process of rebuilding that critical part of the world that’s going to require nation states like Saudi Arabia and the Emiratis to help. Now, we thought yesterday that you know, all systems go, but as we know in this world nothing, in particular in the Middle East, nothing’s done until it’s done. And the fact that the Israeli government has not met at the cabinet level, I am not sure what the delay reason is, but clearly this ceasefire needs to be implemented. I hope both Hamas leadership and the Israeli government leadership will act on this deal. I think it was great work of both President Biden and president-elect Trump, they came together on this it’s good for the region, it’s good for the world, let’s get it done.”
- “The inauguration, it’s coming up on Monday, it’s going to be I imagine a wild-and-woolly first week or 10 days. I think the president-elect’s got a lot that he wants to do. And let me say I didn’t vote for Donald Trump, I find a lot of his policies I disagree with, but I want Donald Trump to be successful. He’s going to be president of the United States. I’m going to go to the inaguration on Monday. If he can help make sure Americans stay safe, that we can keep our economy moving, that we can bring down inflation, he’ll have me as a supporter and I will support many of his nominees. But when he makes policies or lays out positions that are just not grounded in any factual truth or rolls back basic protections for Americans, then I will oppose him and try to build bipartisan coalitions to do that. So I wish president-elect Trump, I wish well for our nation, I look forward to where I can partner with him, but I also look forward to holding the line when he tries to restrict Americans rights or unfortunately delve into the world of conspiracy theories.”
- “Which brings me to the the next subject, the nominations. As former chairman and now vice chairman of the intelligence committee, I had John Ratcliffe, who is the CIA nominee, up this week. I think Mr Ratcliffe has got the experience necessary. And I felt like I got got the reassurance from him that he will protect the integrity and independence of the intelligence community. The whole value of the intelligence community is to speak truth to power, even if that power doesn’t want to hear it. And I’ve been concerned because of some of President Trump’s statements about attacking the men and women and the integrity of the intelligence community, or somehow saying they want to fire people based upon their political views. We cannot abide that. I believe I got commitments from John Ratcliffe to not fall into that trap of pushing the intelligence community outside of its independent role. And consequently I will be supporting him in his nomination.”
- “I also had a chance today to interview and and press questions on President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent. He’s got I think appropriate background. I want to review more of his answers, but two things I raised today are important: one is a topic that I frankly worked with the first Trump Administration on and that is Community Development Financial Institutions, CDFIs. And we need to continue to partner in terms of those institutions, access to capital...I got the Treasury Secretary designate to acknowledge that he is open to increasing sanctions on Russia. That is extraordinarily important. We do need to resolve the Ukraine-Russia war, but the strongest way we can resolve that is to put the Ukrainians in the best bargaining position possible. And I thought it was quite important that the secretary designate…said that he would try to urge President Trump to bring stronger sanctions. We cannot provide relief for Vladimir Putin’s awful invasion of Ukraine.”
- “We also do need to remember President Biden has got a few more days left. I think he made a good final message to America last night…”
- “Final issue I just want to raise…some of the challenges and legislation around the border. And clearly the border has been a mess; the Biden Administration waited way too long to shut that down. And we need a full-fledged bipartisan immigration bill. But part of what President Trump is threatening is to deport people who have overstayed their welcome or committed crimes, going after folks who’ve already been adjudicated. I understand but there are series of individuals living in Virginia under something called TPS, Temporary Protective Status, from El Salvador, Sudan, Venezuela, Nicaragua, many living in in Northern Virginia, some folk particularly from El Salvador going back to the 1990s they have lived in America for 30 plus years. I’m glad to see that President Biden extended that TPS protections for those individuals so they don’t face undue pressure around whatever President Trump is going to do around deportation.”
- “I don’t want TikTok to go away. I know there’s a lot of creativity on TikTok, I know there’s a lot of folks who are social influencers make their living off of TikTok. But I, like 80% of the Congress, completely bipartisan, said at the end of the day, TikTok shouldn’t be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. And unfortunately, that’s what happens right now where our data could be collected or as more and more people use TikTok as their most important news source, the ability for that to be turned into a propaganda tool is a real national security threat. But I would be wide open to a 90-day extension. The current President, Biden, could do that as well, because it feels like with the deadline approaching – it appears the Supreme Court is not going to buy TikTok’s argument that the law is not constitutional – with the law kicking in, it’s finally forced the bidders – because at the end of the day, all we want to do is this to be sold to a non-Chinese entity…so let’s just transfer the control to a non-Chinese entity, if that takes 90 days additional…I’m open to have that timeline, but it should not simply be an extension to nowhere, there has to be a deal that has to be struck and the Chinese Communist Party have to give up control at the end of the day of this valuable asset.”
- “Most of you know my background was in business. I’ve been very blessed to do really well in American Business. I celebrate people who’ve been successful, and you’re not going to see me the way some of my Democratic candidate colleagues just throw stones at people just because they’re successful or rich. But it is more than a little weird that literally the richest people in the world are all coming together behind Donald Trump, the fact that many of them are being given positions of enormous influence without any kind of checks or balances. And I know Biden called this an oligarchy, and I’m not going to use that term, but I am going to recognize that you look at Vladimir Putin in Russia and who are the group of people around him that are the billionaires who’ve done extraordinarily successful. And I’m not criticizing anybody for being rich or successful, but it feels like a bit of a feeding frenzy, where the wealthiest people in the country and in the world are trying to all see how close they can get to Donald Trump at this moment of transition. And I just want to make sure as policy decisions are made going forward, they’re made on behalf of ALL of the American people and not an elite few.“
- “This [Israel-Hamas] deal was reached because the Biden Administration and the incoming Trump Administration worked together…This is the best chance for peace in the region, this is the best chance to get those Israeli hostages back to their families after almost a year and a half. This is the best chance to bring an end to the violence that still killed 70 Palestinians last night in Gaza. So you never know in the Middle East, I thought the deal was done yesterday…I don’t want to speculate as to who is kind of walking away at this point. I hope that the cooler heads will prevail. But let’s face it, both on the terrorist side on Hamas and unfortunately sometimes within the Israeli government, some of the far right-wingers there are people that do not want peace. And I hope those voices who do not want peace can be overwhelmed by the vast majority of Palestinians and Israelis who want this conflict to end.”
- “First of all, I’m going to go to the inauguration because I think we always should celebrate a peaceful transition of power, something that candidly four years ago, the rioters on January 6th tried to interfere with. But I want to go to celebrate that peaceful transfer of power and pay respect. And as I said, I want President Trump to do well. My appeal would be, he won a second turn, he won with a majority, I hope he comes in with an optimistic view of our country. But this willingness to constantly call America bad names, to somehow say it’s an awful place, to denigrate people who work for the American people in the federal government, to denigrate the people who work in our military or the folks that I have a lot of exposure to, the intelligence community, I don’t think that does him or our country any good. So I hope we hear less about ‘carnage’ and more about how he wants to grow the economy, keep us safe, and also if there are areas where we need to shake up the system, I think there’s a lot of things around government efficiency, I’m open to that, but it needs to be really about efficiency, not just a frontal attack on people who are federal workers. So I don’t have the slightest idea…about what he’s actually going to say, but I hope we get a little more, you know the day of inauguration is a time for optimism, it’s a time for uplifting, it’s a time for bringing people together whether they supported him or not. I’m going to be there as somebody who didn’t support him for election, but will support him to be a successful president. I hope he’ll take that into mind.”
- “I worked well with Mike Turner. I think he was a strong defender of the intelligence committee. I think he…stood up strongly in terms of American support for Ukraine. I don’t have the slightest idea why he got kicked out...I talked with him briefly last night. I think I was surprised, I think he was surprised. I don’t know the incoming chair…I will try to work with him, my job is to work with anybody – you don’t get to pick who you work with in Congress, you work with people that are also hired by their constituents. And the question about whether Trump has too much influence – I can’t think of a president coming in that appears to have more sway with his own political party than Donald Trump does at this moment…It’ll be interesting to see when members are confronted with, here’s the Trump way versus here’s what they view as their positions for the last 20 years, who’s going to win out on that. I think about the number of Republicans who’ve raised concerns about broad-based tariffs that are ending up going to raise costs for Americans, drive up inflation. But…will they simply all roll over? Time will tell. I do remember this, the first Trump presidency was chaotic at best. And this kind of honeymoon that clearly has lasted since the election and through the inauguration, it’ll be curious to see 30 days from now whether there will still be this same kind of, you know, follow Trump no matter what his position is. I think our democracy stays robust where you, regardless of party support the president when he’s right, but be willing to stand up to him when he’s wrong. And time will tell whether that is the rule in the second Trump Administration.”
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