Virginia senator on shootings in Australia and Rhode Island, U.S. boat strikes and more
WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the shootings in Australia and at Brown University in Rhode Island.
"Both horrible and particularly on the first day of Hanukkah, which is a celebration of light over darkness. And boy, we could use a little more light these days," Sen. Warner expressed.
Brennan also brought up her previous interview with MarÃa Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize, who said military action pressure is virtuous and necessary, leading her to ask the senator if he was persuaded by Machado's argument, and Warner said:
"Ms. Machado is a hero. She deserves to win the Nobel Prize. And one of the mistakes the Biden administration made last year when the opposition candidates won overwhelmingly, was not put more pressure on Maduro then to leave. But the action now that Trump has chosen Maduro, who is a bad guy and saying, and I'm not sure what his policy is, but at the very same time, is pardoning, for example, a Honduran former president who was convicted in America of drug running. The president who has not been willing to stand up strong against Putin, who is probably the most brutal authoritarian leader in the world, as we go on and off with Ukraine. I think...yes, it would be great to get rid of Maduro. But in terms of the question, Donald Trump has not come to the American people and said, here are our goals in Venezuela. We've got troops potentially in harm's way. We've got boat actions, for example, where we're blowing up boats, where we can obviously interdict, as we saw with the oil tanker. I think the President needs to make the case if he's going to try to put boots on the ground in Venezuela."
During the interview, Brennan and Warner talked about the U.S. boat strikes in Venezuela, particularly the September 2 double tap strike.
This prompted Brennan to ask Warner, who said he wants the classified video of the strike to be made public, what he thinks the video is going to show the public and what will it change, the senator said:
"I think the video is chilling, disturbing, whatever term you want to use...because the idea of these two survivors hanging on to remnants of a boat and then America taking a series of additional strikes. The Congress needs to see it at the very minimum. I think the American public needs to see it."
Later in the interview, Brennan and Warner talked about the attack in Syria over the weekend, which left three Americans dead.
When asked if he supports keeping 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria, and if he has concerns that the Syrian government isn't able to keep the infiltrators out, Warner said:
"First of all, condolences to the three Americans families, Armed Forces members, one an interpreter. I think our troops have played an important role. We are working closely with, for example, the Kurds. We have literally tens of thousands of ISIS family members in certain prisons in that area...But the President...I think pulling out without a plan would be a mistake, but the president, again, has sent signals. Months ago, he said he's thinking about taking all those American soldiers out without articulating his strategy. I mean the president, if he wants to make the case to the American people of when our soldiers are in harm's way, and particularly when we're talking about the Caribbean and now potential Venezuela. This has not been an overnight. This buildup of force has been months. He owes it to all of us to come in and explain what his goal is."
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Warner, click here.
