Virginia senator on U.S.-Iran conflict and Kristi Noem’s demotion
WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
Before the interview started, Brennan and Sen. Kaine talked about an explosion near the U.S. embassy in Oslo that happened during the weekend, with the Norwegian police saying it may have been a deliberate attack linked to the current security situation.
When asked what he knows about the threat, Kaine said:
"There are threats. Because of my service on the Foreign Relations Committee, I've been in dialogue with State Department personnel around the world. Escalated security, other embassies or consulates have had protests, protests that kind of were merging toward violence or at least frightening to our diplomats. We have American citizens stranded in the region. They were told to come home, but they weren't told to come home until after commercial air flights had stopped. And so my office has been working with Virginians this week trying to help them come home. And so we owe it to our brave professionals wherever they are, and our citizens to keep them safe. And, that's just one more reason why I've been asking the question, have we learned nothing from 25 years of war in the Middle East? And with the arrival of the first American casualties back home yesterday, including a Virginian, I worry that the answer to that is no."
On the topic of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran, Brennan asked the senator if he has an estimate on the number of Americans still stranded in the Middle East, and he said:
"It's thousands and thousands. Now, not every American chooses to come home. So there's hundreds of thousands, if you just add them all up, who is coming home. I am working with the Virginians who are reaching out to my office. We were able to facilitate one Richmond area resident getting home from Dubai on a flight a couple of days back. And so it's sort of dealing with that. But what worries me a little bit more is that some of the professionals at embassies and consuls are not being told to come home. And they're sort of there, and often their security presence is not what we wish it would be. So we have to pay close attention to them."
During the interview, Brennan and Kaine talked about Kristi Noem being fired as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which the senator said he regretted voting for Noem's confirmation.
"She was a governor. Governors are often good cabinet secretaries. But what we learned, and this bears going forward, is that she wasn't calling the shots. Stephen Miller is calling the shots. And as long as he is calling the shots without reforms, this is going to continue to be a very, very rogue, renegade department."
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
Brennan followed up by asking if he needs to see and hear something from Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who has been named as Noem's replacement as DHS Secretary, to get him to vote for Sen. Mullin, even if he says Mullin's going to be a puppet for Stephen Miller, and Kaine said:
"That's our fear. So he could demonstrate otherwise. But what we want to see is not just the change in the nameplate on the door. We want to see reforms to the way ICE and CBP operates. They should operate like local law enforcement does."
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Kaine, click here.
