Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had quite the round of interviews on Sunday-morning television.
In stops at legacy media outlets CNN and CBS, he attempted to pour rhetorical water on fears of violence in former President Donald Trump is arrested, addressed having accepted donations from Silicon Valley Bank, and promised to crack down on TikTok.
Warner, a moderate Democrat who occupies a seat that is likely in play for Republicans in 2024, committed himself to the middle ground on virtually every topic.
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Warner said he believed the FBI was prepared to respond should Trump be indicted and violence occur, but he was quick to also point out that there is no evidence of “specific strains” of violence, only an uptick in “the level of rhetoric on some of these right-wing sites.”
“The horrific activities that took place on Jan. 6, God-willing we will not see them repeated this week, should any one of these cases move forward on Trump,” Warner said.
As previously reported on FISM, Trump has behaved in recent weeks as though an indictment or arrest was forthcoming, and Washington insiders seem convinced such an event was imminent.
Warner revealed the FBI briefed him on a “potential indictment” of Trump, but he gave no hint as to whether an indictment was forthcoming.
He was similarly non-committal during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” when asked for an opinion of the ongoing investigation into classified documents that were possessed by Trump and President Joe Biden.
“We need more information about these documents,” Warner said. “And more importantly, we need to [learn about] what the intel community has done to mitigate the harm. And we’re still in conversations with the Justice Department.”
TIKTOK AND SILICON VALLEY BANK
Warner, who is closely allied with the likes of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. John Thune (R-S.C.) on many matters, also took the opportunity to advocate for a bill that would allow the Department of Commerce to limit TikTok nationwide.
It’s a bill, co-sponsored by Warner and Thune, that has garnered immense bipartisan support in both chambers — 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans have endorsed it — and it appears Biden is in favor as well.
“I think the White House is very in favor of this bill,” Warner said during his CBS appearance.
Warner’s remarks dovetailed with those of White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby, who said during his own appearance on CBS that the matter was still under review but that “the president’s already said we absolutely have national security concerns about that application and he’s banned it from government devices. We have endorsed the [Warner-Thune] legislation, we’d love to see that passed by the Congress so that the president can have additional tools and authorities.”
But the day wasn’t all high-road taking and bipartisan endorsing for Warner. During his stop on CBS, he was questioned about having received $21,600 from Silicon Valley Bank and another $6,000 from the bank’s CEO.
Warner, citing a scheduled Tuesday hearing, said that “if there’s malfeasance at the bank, of course, I’m going to give the money back.”