Mark Warner

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Warner Reverses Himself on Assault Weapons Ban

October 2, 2018 at 11:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) writing in the Washington Post:

In the years since the Senate last had a meaningful debate about gun-violence legislation, we’ve seen assault rifles and high-capacity magazines repeatedly used in mass shootings, with ever-higher body counts: Forty-nine murdered at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Fifty-eight killed and 422 wounded by gunfire in Las Vegas, one year ago Monday.

We’ve seen the gun lobby close its eyes to the fact that assault rifles were the weapon of choice for the mass shooters at Parkland, Fla., and at Sandy Hook Elementary School — and to the reality that these weapons can kill with an efficiency that shotguns and handguns, like the ones I own, simply cannot match.

Though I remain convinced that strengthening our background-check system is critical, I also believe we must do more to end mass shootings. So today I am signing on as a sponsor of the assault weapons ban.

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

June 24, 2018 at 12:31 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“If you get me one more glass of wine, I’ll tell you stuff only Bob Mueller and I know. If you think you’ve seen wild stuff so far, buckle up. It’s going to be a wild couple of months.”

— Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), quoted by Politico, a dinner Friday night for more than 100 guests at his house on Martha’s Vineyard.

Dems Prep a Plan if Rosenstein Is Fired

April 13, 2018 at 2:13 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“With rumors swirling that President Trump could soon fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, key Democrats this week began putting together an emergency action plan,” National Journal reports.

“Step one: Don’t call for impeachment.”

Said Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA): “The first 24 to 48 hours, if and when that happens, we should stay calm; we should do our best to reach out across the aisle and talk to our colleagues and say, ‘Seriously, we cannot allow this to happen.’ Just don’t go immediately to DEFCON-1,” said a member of Congress who attended the meeting but asked for anonymity to discuss it candidly. “We should not say anything—let the dust settle for a minute. What I took from it is it’s better to build a coalition across the aisle than just to come out guns a-blazing saying, ‘We’ve got to impeach him now.'”

Warner Says Investigation Has New Information

January 29, 2018 at 7:17 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) told Politico that Congress late last year received “extraordinarily important new documents” in its investigation of President Trump and his campaign’s possible collusion with the 2016 Russian election hacking, opening up significant new lines of inquiry in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s probe of the president.

Warner says “end-of-the-year document dumps” produced “very significant” revelations that “opened a lot of new questions” that Senate investigators are now looking into, meaning the inquiry into Trump and the Russia hacking—already nearly a year old—will not be finished for months longer.

Warner Says He Won’t Run for President

November 30, 2016 at 2:19 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) told the Wall Street Journal that he won’t run for president.

“Mr. Warner, who as Virginia’s governor in 2006 laid groundwork for a potential 2008 presidential campaign, including visits to New Hampshire, said the time for him to be a national candidate has passed and he is not considering a White House campaign in 2020.”

Said Warner: “I think that window is probably shut.”

Warner Says He’s Not Being Vetted

June 18, 2016 at 5:02 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 48 Comments

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) told the Virginian-Pilot that he doesn’t expect to be vetted as Hillary Clinton’s running mate.

Said Warner: “I’m not being vetted. I don’t expect to be vetted.”

Warner did, however, say of his colleague Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA): “There’s nobody with better integrity and trustfulness… Secretary Clinton and the country would do well by him.

Warner Appointed to Senate Democratic Leadership

November 29, 2014 at 10:25 am EST By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) is joining the Senate Democratic leadership team, even though he voted against keeping Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) as Democratic leader, Roll Call reports.

Warner is seen as a counter-balance to liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who joined the leadership team after the midterm elections.

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]That this was announced on the Friday after Thanksgiving suggests no one was too interested in drawing much attention to the move. [/speech_bubble]

How Mark Warner Almost Got Beat

November 5, 2014 at 12:23 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 22 Comments

National Journal: “When Gillespie – previously a lobbyist, Republican National Committee chair and Bush White House aide – entered the race at the start of 2014, few observers gave him much chance to win. He was positioned to be the GOP’s sacrificial lamb, and even as the race tightened in the closing weeks, many Republicans still figured Gillespie had a better shot at the governorship in 2017 than the Senate in 2014.”

“But Gillespie sensed from the start that this year’s climate would favor Republicans, and he pounded Warner incessantly as an alleged Obama clone who voted with the president nearly all the time in the Senate. Recognizing that Warner’s stint in the governor’s mansion was still fondly remembered by most Virginians, Gillespie and his fellow Republicans claimed repeatedly that ‘Governor Warner wouldn’t recognize Senator Warner today.'”