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 Nov. 2, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re joined now by Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner. Good morning. Good to have you here.
SEN. MARK WARNER: Good morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So on this shutdown, we have seen the CEO of all the major airlines come out. The union that represents the air traffic controllers all support the Republican position of just quickly fund the government with a short term clean spending bill. The American Federation of Government Employees also echoing that, AFSA, which represents the diplomats our country has, are coming out and saying that. They’re saying in high threat posts they don’t have armored vehicles because they can’t afford to repair them. Cyber-attacks are up. Consular officers are paying out of pocket to visit ill or incarcerated Americans. Medication shipments aren’t arriving, bills aren’t being paid. At what point does all of this pain and pressure end the shutdown?
SEN. WARNER: I hope it ends it this week. Frankly, I see it from my folks. I was greeting voters yesterday, we have early- early vote for our gubernatorial election, but I hear people also very angry at this president. I mean, we knew this wasn’t going to end unless Donald Trump was back in the country. He’s now back in the country. He got to go ahead and put America first and sit down with us, deal with the health care shortage, deal as well- and to show the just cruelty of this administration, there were $6 billion set aside for SNAP benefits. He’s had judges say spend that money. We’re still waiting to see whether the administration wants to appeal that. Get the money out to people in need, sit down with us, get this resolved this week, and let’s get everybody back to work.
MARGARET BRENNAN: When you say it’s going to end this week, does that mean you’re going to see more Democrats cross the aisle and agree to vote for a short term spending bill–
[CROSSTALK]
SEN. WARNER: What I think it means is that–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –three have.
[CROSSTALK ENDS]
SEN. WARNER: What we’ve seen from your polling, everything else, it’s a pox on both your houses. We got to put this to bed. It’s going to require Trump in the room. It’s why the bipartisan conversation so far, I don’t think we’ll ever get to yes, because unfortunately, my Republican colleagues can’t move on anything without a Trump sign off. Trump has spent enough time going out there now trying to audition for a Nobel Prize, running around the world. Come back and put America first. Sit down and let’s get this resolved. It can be done in an hour using Donald Trump.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But to be clear, what is the Democratic ask at this point to get that. Because leader Thune said, hey, I’ll talk to you about health care open the government first.
SEN. WARNER: The Democratic ask is- everyone, as of Saturday, saw health care rates skyrocket. This is an immediate crisis too–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, we’ve blown past that date of November 1–
SEN. WARNER: They can- we can- but we can deal with this jointly, but it’s going to require the active intervention of the President.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Meaning you need to see some sort of negotiation on an extension to government health care subsidies before voting to reopen the government?
SEN. WARNER: Listen, President Trump has ended up- and I’m a big supporter of Ukraine, has met more with Volodymyr Zelenskyy this year than he’s met with any Democrat.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So the ask is the meeting?
SEN. WARNER: The meeting is, let’s sit down and resolve it. I can’t believe Donald Trump, the great deal maker of deal makers- who at least how he presents himself, sitting down with us, we couldn’t reach an agreement in an hour.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But at this point, what I hear you saying is, you are not willing to cross the aisle for an immediate, short term funding bill that is clean. You still need a negotiation over health care.
SEN. WARNER: The notion of at least sitting down to talk about health care, making sure that $6 billion that is set aside for SNAP benefits gets paid out so people don’t go hungry and we get the government reopened again. The President of the United States has said when he was not President that it’s the responsibility of a president to end shutdowns. He has paid no attention to the shutdown. He’s- stopped his many international trips, come sit down and let’s get this resolved.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And there’s been outreach, or there hasn’t been outreach?
SEN. WARNER: There’s lots of conversations.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So when you say you’re optimistic- or would you say you’re optimistic about it after this week?
SEN. WARNER: I think as- what your poll indicated, people are pox on both your houses at this point, get the darn thing open. Deal with the health care cliff. Don’t let people go hungry when we’ve got money set aside on SNAP. That can all be accomplished, sooner the better.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’ll be talking about those food stamps later in the program. I want to ask you about your national security portfolio. Just overnight, there was another US strike on an alleged drug boat. I know you have been concerned that Democrats are being excluded, particularly from a key meeting that happened this past week with only Republicans in the room. Secretary Hegseth was asked shortly after your press conference by our Ellee Watson of CBS about his plans to share evidence with Congress. Take a listen.
[SOT]
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: We are presenting it to Congress. We have time and time again on a bipartisan basis they have been given the evidence directly.
[END SOT]
MARGARET BRENNAN: He says it’s been given. So is your complaint that the evidence is not sufficient, or you disagree with the–
SEN. WARNER: The Secretary of Defense doesn’t tell the truth on this matter, we asked for the legal opinion back in July when it was first written. We had been promised it time and again. The Secretary of State, my former colleague and friend, Marco Rubio, looked me in the eye nine days ago and said, Mark, you’re going to get it right away. We still didn’t get the legal opinion. And then a group of random Republican senators was shared on a partisan basis what is the President’s understanding of why these- why it’s legal to take these actions. That- you know Margaret, that is not the way the system is supposed to work. When you further partisan national security- when we’re putting troops in harm’s way. I got an aircraft carrier from Norfolk that’s in the Caribbean right now. How do I answer the families of those sailors about whether this operation is even legal? This document needs to be shared with every member of the Senate this week, so that as we get into this discussion about war powers, we’ve got the basis of how the administration is claiming that it’s legal.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know the administration says this isn’t about war powers that the President has has authorities under Title Two. But let me read to you, because the White House knew you were coming on, they reached out to us yesterday to assert they’ve provided six bipartisan briefings to members or staff, including your staff, plus the Gang of Eight. A senior Administration official also said classified documents were made available.
SEN. WARNER: There were no classified documents made available to the Gang of Eight members until after a partisan briefing was made to Republicans only. That is not the way our system is supposed to work. If you want to put Americans in harm’s way, it needs to be done on a bipartisan basis. My Republican colleagues, many of them afterwards, said, oh yeah, that was not really good. Well, I wish they would have got up and walked out of the damn room, because everyone knows partisanship should not be involved in these national security matters, particularly when we’re putting our soldiers and sailors in harm’s way.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So it wasn’t just you. The Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, a Republican and his Democratic colleague, Jack Reed, said they have twice written to Secretary Hegseth, asking for execute orders specifically legal justifications and the list of terror organizations tied to these strikes. They don’t have that information, and they have oversight of the military.
SEN. WARNER: I rest my case. This is what we’re all saying, come clean. And the fact is, if, as the administration says, these are all bad guys, and yeah, they’re all drugs on these boats, interdict these boats and show the world. Listen the Maduro government in Venezuela. And by the way, none of- none of this legal opinion has anything to do with the Venezuelan Government, Maduro is a bad guy. We should have pushed harder on him when the people of Venezuela voted him out under President Biden. Biden didn’t do enough. The drugs are all cocaine it has nothing to do with fentanyl. If you are going to try to make a case to the American public, make it publicly, don’t do this and then try to hide the legal justification and give it out only on a partisan basis?
MARGARET BRENNAN: Does your Republican colleague, the Chair of the Intelligence Committee, Tom Cotton, hear you on this? Is he working with you on this?
SEN. WARNER: To his credit, he did not attend this Republican only briefing that took place earlier this week.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And neither did Roger Wicker, Armed Services–
SEN. WARNER: –the notion here is–
MARGARET BRENNAN: So the White House and the Republicans are in disagreement on this.
SEN. WARNER: Well, there is not a lack of disagreement from members of the Senate that we’ve been asking for this legal justification for months, and they are now hiding the ball and only giving it out on a partisan basis.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Senator Warner, thank you for your time today.
SEN. WARNER: Thank you, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: ‘Face the Nation’ will be back in one minute, stay with us.
