See below for video and highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s appearance on “Face the Nation” this morning.
- On the potential agreement with Iran – “Listen, if the president can declare victory, so be it…[but] let’s look at the real facts.; 107 days into Donald Trump’s war of choice, can anyone make the case that we or our allies are in a better spot than before this war? The regime’s leadership is more radical than ever. The ability for us to get the enriched uranium out, I believe will require troops on the ground, which I don’t think America wants to do. The idea that we have a 60-day additional negotiation. Where does that lead? We’ll be here 60 days. Still won’t have access to it. Clearly, after the heads had said, we’ve destroyed all their capabilities. They still have plenty of missiles and thousands of drones. And the idea that the Strait is suddenly going to be magically reopened. Look at the gas prices. They went from $2.80 to $4.20. And I believe they’ll go up more because the overall world reserves have all come down. How is that better for America or better for our allies?…First of all, the idea that these three gentlemen that have very little background in terms of negotiations or the technical nature of nuclear negotiations going against a hardened Iranian team that’s been doing this for decades. You know, I wish we had some of our experts at the table as well, but I’m not sure any of this will become before Congress. And it should. I mean, if the president wanted to start this war, a war of choice, there was no imminent threat from Iran, come to the Congress, come to the people and lay out the case. He has not. And we have not done the kind of oversight that is required. We are slowly moving along and getting additional Republicans to say stop on the War Powers Act, but Congress has failed miserably….Yes, I’m still worried. And you know, for all his critique of JCPOA, we had international observers. We actually had an alliance there that included the Europeans and Russia and China were all signitories. Now it is America going alone or going with Israel only and that does not make us safer and again I will be happy to come back on the show and eat my words if the Iranians over the next 60 days give up that enriched uranium.”
- On Trump’s intention to nominate Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence:Law enforcement – “He was head of the SEC and as Southern District of New York. That’s where we pursue a lot of our terrorists. I know Jay. I think he’s got the right temperament. I’ve got a lot of questions like, you know, who won the election in 2020. So, he at least acknowledges that truthfulness. But remember Margaret, this was totally caused by Donald Trump. He could have nominated Jay Clayton a week ago and we wouldn’t have gone dark….I’ve got questions for Jay, like want to make sure that he’s going to maintain the integrity of our elections, not try to pull the things that Miss Gabbard did where she was interfering in domestic election activities with the seizure of the ballots in Fulton County. My hope is if we can get unanimous consent, we could even get him confirmed this week. I would hope that the president would then say to Tulsi Gabbard who was going to stay till the end of the month, you know, stay at least until Clayton is confirmed or allow the number two to stay…I am a huge critic [of Gabbard]…My fear is not so much the damage [Bill Pulte] could do on section 702, which has a full audit trail. If he misuses that, we’ll figure it out. But having him exposed, where he doesn’t even have a security clearance to all our nation’s classified programs out of ignorance, he might give away information. I’ve had heads of our intelligence communities say to us, they’re terrified of showing him information. I’ve had foreign governments express huge concern. The one thing we know about Bill Pulte is he will do whatever Donald Trump says. He was able to weaponize private mortgage insurance information. Giving him the keys to the 18 intelligence agencies would be a disaster and a national security threat.”
- On FISA reauthorization: “Listen, we have to get FISA reauthorized. We were on a glide path to getting this done. Warrantless surveillance tools for concern abroad. foreigners listening in on foreigners talking to foreigners abroad. None of this needed to happen if Donald Trump had he didn’t even come out in support of this tool until about 6 weeks ago. If he put forward Clayton or somebody else 6 weeks ago if he would have done even Jay Clayton a few days earlier. I actually think Donald Trump wants this tool to expire because you know he would then try to blame Democrats if god forbid if anything happens and and the remarkable thing on this is normally we come on here and it’s Democrats versus Republicans. This one is not. My Republican colleagues have worked handinand glove if there is something that happens god forbid the responsibility lies with one man, Donald Trump. What has happened is those investigations that have already started continue. Our ability to continue to listen to bad guys talking to bad guys abroad continues. The question is whether you can start new actions. And we are now and I’ve not gotten a report yet whether the Telcos and the Googles are going to adhere or whether because they don’t have the indemnification they’ll stop participating. As of Sunday morning, I don’t have an answer on that. I hope the Justice Department would do use all the tools they can to try to encourage them to continue this program for what will be, whether we like it now or not a short-term lapse…A national security risk caused because Donald Trump did not put forward Clayton or anyone else that was legitimate until the clock had run out. There is no question if you got any of my Republican colleagues here, they would agree this was a White House created problem and finally somebody got to Trump and say you got to put a rational person in, not this guy who’s not even got a national security clearance. We will get Clayton, I hope, confirmed as quickly as possible. We will then move very quickly to get FISA reauthorized. In the interim, I hope the Telcos will continue to cooperate with the government.”
