Virginia senator on government shutdown and military strikes
WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the government shutdown.
According to Brennan, several organizations, such as the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the American Federation of Government Employees, say they support the Republican's position of funding the government with a short-term clean spending bill.
The American Foreign Service Association, according to Brennan, are also in favor of it while adding that high threat posts don't have armored vehicles because they can't afford to repair them.
In addition, Brennan said cyberattacks are up, consular officers are paying out of pocket to visit ill or incarcerated Americans, medication shipments are not arriving, and bills are not being paid.
This prompted Brennan to ask Sen. Warner if the pain and pressure will end the shutdown, to which the senator said:
"I hope it ends it this week. Frankly, I see it from my folks. I was greeting voters yesterday, we have early- early vote for our gubernatorial election, but I hear people also very angry at this president. I mean, we knew this wasn't going to end unless Donald Trump was back in the country. He's now back in the country. He got to go ahead and put America first and sit down with us, deal with the health care shortage, deal as well- and to show the just cruelty of this administration, there were $6 billion set aside for SNAP benefits. He's had judges say spend that money. We're still waiting to see whether the administration wants to appeal that. Get the money out to people in need, sit down with us, get this resolved this week, and let's get everybody back to work."
During the interview, Brennan and Warner talked about the military strikes on alleged drug boats.
Warner had previously said he was concerned that Democrats are being excluded, especially regarding a key meeting that happened last week with only Republicans in the room.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked about his plans to share evidence with Congress, and he said, "We are presenting it to Congress. We have time and time again on a bipartisan basis they have been given the evidence directly."
This led Brennan to ask the senator if his complaint is about the evidence being insufficient, and Warner said:
"The Secretary of Defense doesn't tell the truth on this matter, we asked for the legal opinion back in July when it was first written. We had been promised it time and again. The Secretary of State, my former colleague and friend, Marco Rubio, looked me in the eye nine days ago and said, 'Mark, you're going to get it right away.' We still didn't get the legal opinion. And then a group of random Republican senators was shared on a partisan basis what is the President's understanding of why it's legal to take these actions...that is not the way the system is supposed to work. When you further partisan national security...we're putting troops in harm's way. I got an aircraft carrier from Norfolk that's in the Caribbean right now. How do I answer the families of those sailors about whether this operation is even legal? This document needs to be shared with every member of the Senate this week, so that as we get into this discussion about war powers, we've got the basis of how the administration is claiming that it's legal."
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Warner, click here.
