If we’re going to fight back against the Trump/Musk hack of the federal treasury, we’re going to need people like Mark Warner to stop being Vichy collaborators and actually do something.
Warner, D-Va., took a baby step in that direction on Monday, with a pithy social media response to the catastrophe at the United States Agency for International Development.
“USAID is an essential organization that supports the global economy and saves lives,” Warner posted on his Bluesky account on Monday. “If Trump or his unelected copresident succeed in shuttering it, it will deeply weaken America’s position in the world in a free giveaway to China. We’re going to fight this.”
This Bluesky was posted at 3:22 p.m., literally two hours after I’d called Warner out for his silence on the USAID matter, which has seen Elon Musk and his personal army of extralegal pseudo bureaucrats seize control of the independent agency, which Musk says he intends to “shut down,” despite having no authority to do so.
I’m far from being alone in trying to prod Warner to even just say something, so I’m not taking credit for this baby step, which, anyway, ain’t much, but it’s a start.
Contact Mark Warner
- Senate office phone: 202-224-2023
- Submit a comment: bit.ly/MarkWarnerContactPage
- BlueSky: bsky.app/profile/markwarner.bsky.social
It would be nice if Warner would directly address the actions of his good buddy, Marco Rubio, a former Senate Intelligence Committee colleague, who has named himself the acting head of USAID – as with Musk, he has no authority to do that – and Rubio is also saying he intends to submerge USAID within the State Department that he heads up.
Again, Rubio has no authority to do that.
Warner voted to confirm Rubio to the Secretary of State post.
As he voted to confirm Scott Bessent to become the Secretary of Treasury, ahead of Bessent giving Musk and his pseudo bureaucrat army access to the Department of Treasury’s payment system, which has allowed Musk to shut down payments to federal contractors.
Warner has yet to take ownership of his votes to confirm Cabinet secretaries who are now complicit in hacking the treasury and trying to unilaterally shut down a federal agency.
Nor has he called out his good buddy, Rubio, or, to this writing, done anything on any of this other than say, very generally, “(w)e’re going to fight this.”
ICYMI
- Trump, Musk, trying to shut down USAID, breaking federal law: Warner focused on guac
- Tim Kaine, Mark Warner helped Elon Musk take over the federal treasury
- Kaine, Warner each own a piece of Trump’s Gitmo immigrant concentration camp
- Tim Kaine, quietly, voted to confirm Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary
- Mark Warner votes for Laken Riley Act: Must be gearing up for Senate re-election run
If you look at the thread on his Bluesky post, you’ll see that he’s getting lots of good advice on how he can lead the fight – basic things, like holding up confirmation votes, as former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did in 2016 with the Merrick Garland Supreme Court appointment, which gave Trump an extra pick when he won the election that year.
McConnell held up that vote for almost a year to steal that seat for Trump.
Warner and others in the Senate Democratic caucus could also use unanimous-consent and filibuster rules to hold up lower-level administration appointments and legislation.
Hey, if Tommy Tuberville, who needs help figuring out how to put on his pants in the morning, can hold up hundreds of military appointments for a year using that approach, surely Mark Warner, who knows how to put on his pants, I mean, seriously, he can do more than just talk.
Keep up the pressure, is my request of you, having read this far.
I know, from an email back-and-forth with a Warner staffer, that they’re feeling some heat.
All we’re asking here is for Warner to be part of the solution.
Not asking him here to lead a coup – just to get him to lead the fight to stop the one that is already well under way.
Video: Mark Warner needs to step up
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Chris Graham
