Transcript: Sen. Mark Warner on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Dec. 14, 2025
The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Dec. 14, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we're now joined by the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner of Virginia. Senator, were you persuaded there by Maria Corina Machado's argument that military action pressure is virtuous and necessary?
SEN. WARNER: Well, first of all, let me at the top of the show- we've got this tragic shooting at Brown University, and then this obviously political strike against the Jewish community in Australia. 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. 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 is- 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.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, at this point, all they've, as I understand it, asked for and justified to Congress were these strikes on the alleged drug boats. Nothing with sovereign territory yet. But that gets to your argument about what is the end goal. Unlike other Democrats when it comes to the drug boats, you've said you're not ready to call them war crimes, particularly what happened on the September 2 double tap strike. You've questioned Admiral Bradley. I know you want the video released to the public. What do you think that's going to show to the public? What will that change?
SEN. WARNER: I think the video is chilling, disturbing, whatever term you want to use--
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Why?
SEN. WARNER: 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.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You've seen it?
SEN. WARNER: I've seen it--
MARGARET BRENNAN:--Only a limited number have--
SEN. WARNER:-- It is extraordinarily chilling. What I'm saying is, once you make the accusation of war crime, you can't take that back, right? And so what I've said--
MARGARET BRENNAN:-- But many of your Democrat colleagues have.
SEN. WARNER: -- I know that. That's why I've said to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, I want to see the written execution order. I want to see the legal opinion that was about this specific strike. I want to know whether the overarching policy memorandum, which was not finished until September 5, three days after the strike, was changed.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I saw you said this. That's not typical, is it? Don't you normally come up with the legal justification before you take the action, rather than three days after?
SEN. WARNER: This is where I have a question. The justification was made in late July. They didn't write it down till September 5.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Why?
SEN. WARNER: I don't have the answer. I also want to see the after-action report. I want to give the military every opportunity to make their case, because once you- again- once you make that claim, what it would do to how we view our military, morale, how we're viewed in the world. It's so important. But this President has not- and frankly, Pete Hegseth, even worse. Here's the guy who goes out and brags about the strikes until there's controversy, and then he kind of runs for the hills.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the President said again this week, and I'll just read it to you that land strikes on Venezuela are being considered. Land strikes on horrible people that are bringing in drugs and killing our people. It doesn't necessarily have to be in Venezuela. It's people that are bringing in drugs to our country as targets. Have you seen any legal justification to hit these people now designated as terrorists on sovereign territory, whether it's Mexico or Colombia or Venezuela?
SEN. WARNER: The vast majority of the drug particularly- this is all cocaine. This is not fentanyl. The vast majority--
MARGARET BRENNAN:-- In terms of the drug boats--
SEN. WARNER: -- The vast majority is actually in the eastern Pacific, yet most of the strikes have been in the Caribbean. And is- this mean that suddenly you're going to be in open warfare with all of American military against any and all drug dealers? Again, the drug dealers are awful. We need to do all we can to stop them, but the President, when he puts American forces potentially in harm's way, needs to come and explain to American people what the goal is here. Particularly when he's then, at the same breath, pardoning the former president of Honduras, who was a convicted drug dealer.
MARGARET BRENNAN: In terms of designated terrorists, ISIS is a designated terrorist group. We just saw the first combat deaths, essentially, of the Trump administration yesterday. Three Americans killed, three injured in Syria in this apparent ambush. The head of the National Counterterrorism Center said it was an insider attack. Are you supportive of keeping the nearly 1,000 US troops in Syria. Do you have concerns that the Syrian Government isn't able to keep these infiltrators out?
SEN. WARNER: 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.--
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- So, you want them to continue?
SEN. WARNER: 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.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Domestically, we have Senator Cassidy on the program. We taped with him earlier. He says he's looking for fellow Democrats to join him in a health care deal by March, to make these health savings accounts, and he said he'll offer to extend the existing subsidies for healthcare premiums. Would you be on board with that?
SEN. WARNER: First of all, we've got a crisis that hits as of Monday, tomorrow, because that's when people have to sign up--
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- He says retroactively you can do it.
SEN. WARNER: Well, listen, it's a mess once you've signed up or you've dropped out of the system. You know, the idea that you're retroactively going to fix it. Fix it now, so people don't go into Christmas thinking they're going to not know if they'll be able to afford healthcare. And the notion- but the notion of what- Bill Cassidy is a good guy. I've worked with him in a lot of different efforts, but the idea that a one time $1,500 payment into your pocket is going to suddenly make up. I had a person the other day. Her current insurance is $544 a month. It'll go up to over $1,500 a month. A one time $1,500 payment is not going to meet her needs, and particularly if that would mean that things like pre-existing condition protections would disappear.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That sounds like you're not- not on board in these remaining days of 2025 Senator, I have to--
SEN. WARNER: -- Fix the crisis right now, extend the subsidies, and then let's debate how we fix it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We have to leave it there. Thank you, Senator. We'll be right back.
