In the News
UMWA, Black Lung Association members meet with Warner
By Mike Still
In Kingsport Times News
The federal government needs to start enforcing mining health rules and shore up the black lung benefits system.
That was the message to Virginia U.S. Sen. Mark Warner during a Thursday meeting with the United Mine Workers of America top leadership and miner health advocates at the union’s Subdistrict 28 headquarters in Castlewood.
Union President Brian Samson and Secretary Treasurer Mike Phillippi joined National Black Lung Association Vice President Vonda Robinson, pulmonologist Dr. Brandon Crum, Stone Mountain Health Services black lung program director Brad Johnson, black lung benefits attorney Heith Reynolds and several miners and family members for the meeting with Warner.
Warner agreed with the panel’s concerns that a toughened silica dust exposure rule for mine operations across the U.S. passed in the final year of the Biden administration has been shunted aside by the Trump administration.
The rule would have put tighter limits on miners’ silica dust exposure as thinning coal seams mean more blasting through rock to reach those seams. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health’s studies of black lung cases have seen an increase in complicated black lung — the presence of both coal and silica dust — in affected miners.
Those studies also have shown that the ages of miners showing signs of complicated black lung are getting younger by the year, with many affected miners in their 30s and 40s.
Crum, who operates Kentucky-based Union Medical Clinic and its black lung evaluation and diagnosis program, collects study date for NIOSH in his role as clinic director and as a federally certified B-reader — a doctor who interprets medical imagery for black lung diagnoses.
At Union Medical Clinic, Crum told Warner, the complicated black lung incidence among 485 new patients there was one in 10, or 10%.
Johnson said the incidence of complicated black lung at the end of the most recent year ran at 14%.
“That’s just the numbers we’ve seen,” Johnson said. Crum and Johnson both said that they expect the age range of affected miners could get younger without enforcement of the rule.
The number of lung transplants for complicate black lung patients is doubling, Crum said, since that often is the only way to treat those miners.
With cuts to the federal Department of Labor and NIOSH, Crum said full funding of NIOSH is essential to curb complicated black lung rates.
NBLA’s Robinson said the system for processing miners’ and widows’ claims for black lung benefits has worked against claimants because mine operators — responsible for much of those benefit awards — still can appeal benefit claims after an award.
Pam Stacy, a miner’s widow, told Warner that she has been waiting two years for a decision on her appeal of a denied claim.
“Many families have walked the same road,” said Stacy. “We’re asking for fairness, dignity and support. My husband gave his strength and life to the mine. The least we can do is make sure his sacrifice means something.”
“We’ve got a president who put a coal operator in charge of MSHA,“ Robinson said. “The president says, ‘dig baby dig.’ Let’s make miners safe again.”
UMWA President Samson said the union has advocated for the 2024 silica rule for 16 years, adding that there is no legal basis not to implement the rule as passed in 2024.
Warner asked Phillippi about the impact of cuts to Department of Labor administrative judges and MSHA staff involved in the black lung claims process.
“It’s not the cuts,” said Phillippi. “Trump offered buyouts and didn’t replace them after they left.”
“At the end of the day, DOGE will cause more damage,” Warner said of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and its cuts to MSHA, the Department of Labor and other government agencies. Robinson asked if a federal severance tax could be expanded to cover exported and domestic coal production at the coal mines. Warner said a mine-wide severance tax would be harder to establish than even a tax on coal exports.
Putting a tax on data centers — users of large amounts of electric production — might be an example of how to share the burden on black lung benefits since miners have and still contribute to the nation’s economy for decades.
Reynolds said another area to examine is how black lung disability is not listed as a disability for establishing Social Security disability benefits. When miners used to get black lung benefits, he said, miners were usually in their 50s and 60s and that made it less of an issue for Social Security disability determination.
“But now it’s a different situation,” Reynolds said, referring to the younger age range of complicated black lung victims.
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The Wall Street Journal: Senators Propose Federal AI Commission Days After Anthropic Ban
Mar 11 2026
Senators Propose Federal AI Commission Days After Anthropic Ban
By James Rundle
In The Wall Street Journal
Two leading U.S. senators plan to introduce a bill to create a congressionally mandated commission to examine federal policy for artificial intelligence, days after the Trump administration blacklisted Anthropic from doing business with the federal government.
Sens. Mark Warner (D., Va.) and Mike Rounds (R., S.D.) plan to introduce legislation Wednesday.
“We ought to have these ground rules set,” said Warner, who also serves as vice chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence. Warner was speaking at the WSJ Tech Live Cybersecurity conference in New York on Wednesday. He said that he and Rounds would put out a proposal later that day.
The Pentagon last week designated AI provider Anthropic a supply-chain risk and directed agencies to cut ties with the company after it refused to remove certain guardrails from its technology for military use. Anthropic on Monday sued the Defense Department, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a host of federal agencies and many other administration officials.
The conflict has raised questions about the extent to which the government and private industry are intertwined in the use of sensitive technologies important for geopolitical strategic objectives and the extent to which national security concerns might override commercial or ethical ones. Significant questions loom about the power of the technology and how it should be deployed, Warner said.
“These are really fundamental, in certain cases almost existential questions, and they’ve gotta be addressed,” he said. “What Senator Rounds and I are trying to do with the commission is you at least put a forum together to get those things started,” he said.
At the same conference, Rounds said the fast development of AI has brought important questions to the fore regarding the morality and legality of creating weapons systems capable of acting on their own.
“Mark is correct. These are issues that we really want to get right from beginning to end,” said Rounds, who is chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s cybersecurity subcommittee.
Warner likened the AI panel that he and Rounds plan to propose to the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, a bipartisan body created in 2019 to assess U.S. cybersecurity posture and preparedness.
The commission is often cited as being one of the most successful of its kind, with more than three-quarters of its 82 recommendations either in place or in the process of being implemented as of 2024, according to a report by its successor group. That number slipped slightly by the end of last year, as the Trump administration reversed some actions and withdrew funding for certain initiatives.
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Sen. Mark Warner announced $500,000 for efforts in affordable housing
By Alex Roever
In ABC 8News
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) announced $500,000 in additional funding to help build more affordable housing.
On Monday, March 3, Henrico County leaders and Warner joined officials from SupportWorks Housing to announce that $500,000 in additional funding will be provided to help build a new affordable housing development to assist individuals who have experienced long-term homelessness.
The funding will go to Greenview Apartments, a 60-unit community planned for Richmond on Rady Street, off the Mechanicsville Turnpike. There will be various on-site services to support residents and help them keep their homes, according to the release.
“Permanent supportive housing is an important strategy for addressing chronic homelessness for vulnerable individuals in our community,” said Roscoe D. Cooper III, Board of Supervisors Chair of the Fairfield District. “This is not just safe and affordable housing. It provides much-needed services, improves the quality of life for these individuals and enables them to rebuild their lives.”
Previously, Henrico and Chesterfield counties, along with the city of Richmond, collaborated to offer $9 million of their allocations of federal HOME-ARP funds to support the project.
The new funding announcement was made at Cool Lanes Commons, which is a supportive-housing community that was opened by SupportWorks Housing in 2024. Officials shared that 97% oof residents located at Cool Lane Commons have not returned to homelessness.
“We are proud of what Cool Lane Commons has done for this community and the people it serves, and we look forward to Greenview Apartments doing the same,” Cooper said.
Warner has applauded Henrico, Chesterfield and Richmond for their collaboration and work on funding affordable housing projects and acknowledged the SupportWorks Housing model, per the release.
“We need to copy this program and take it around the country — 97% of residents do not return to homeless, that is remarkable,” Warner said.
Warner said that in Washington, D.C., housing is “one of the last bipartisan issues.”
“There is recognition at the federal level that we have to do more,” he said. “You all are doing your part to make [the issue of affordable housing] better. This is a real partnership between jurisdictions.”
Warmer also noted that there is congressional work being done on a housing bill called the Housing for the 21st Century Act.
For more information, visit Henrico County’s website here.
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Warner: Virginia families ask, why the war on Iran?
By Dave Ress
In Richmond Times Dispatch
There’s been no intelligence suggesting an imminent threat from Iran, but there are some indications that the leadership that could take power after the death of Ayatollah Khamenei could be even more brutal, said Sen. Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
And he said that what he is hearing suggests the war could go on for weeks.
Warner, in Richmond to present a federal grant for SupportWorks Housing's newest supportive housing project for homeless individuals, was on his way back to Washington from Hampton Roads, home to thousands of sailors currently deployed near Iran.
“I spent the weekend in Hampton Roads in Virginia Beach, in Chesapeake, in Norfolk, where over half the audiences had friends or family that were deployed on the (nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R.) Ford or any of the other ships that are in the region,” Warner said.
“When they say, 'Why is my son and daughter potentially in harm's way? What was the driving factor? What was the immediacy?' I had no answer,” he said.
“If there was not an imminent threat, this is Donald Trump's war of choice, and if he's chosen to put Americans in harm's way, into war, his words war, not some military action, then he's got to come to Congress … and I sure as hell wish he would go down to Hampton Roads and explain to the parents and family members of the sailors who were deployed in the region what his goal was and why they're in harm's way," Warner said.
The briefings the Senate committee has been getting in recent weeks said there was no immediate threat to the United States or its allies in the region, Warner said.
“Most of the intelligence we had was that if the senior Iranian leadership was eliminated, that the people who may come next may even be ... harder or more draconian than even the current version and again, at this point, at least, because, without consultation, Donald Trump owns this war. It's a war of his choice,” Warner said.
“I just pray it doesn’t spiral out of control,” he said.
Warner said one threat may have heightened, however.
“Iran has got proxies, proxies in the region, that could attack, but also my fear, as well, is what happens if there is ... somebody inspired by this attack that might make an attack, a domestic terrorist attack,” he said.
“Do the American people really think that we're fully protected against the potential for terrorist attack in this country with this kind of incompetent leadership? I don't think so,” he said, after mentioning FBI director Kash Patel’s firing of counterterrorism agents and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s continued focus on false charges that the 2020 election was rigged.
Warner said Trump has never made clear what his objectives were in warring on Iran.
“Last week, the president initially said we wanted to go after Iran's nuclear capabilities. In the middle of the week, he was going after Iran's missile capacity. At the end of the week, it was regime change. And so which of those reasons are important enough to have American troops in arms?” he said.
“The Iranian people rose up in record numbers in January against this dreadful regime. if the president had chosen to strike at that point, I could at least understand, but the ugly truth is, the president couldn't strike at that point … He had a key aircraft carrier, Ford, off the coast of Venezuela on part of another one of his military forays. And the allies that we would have in the region, particularly the Europeans, in early January, were appropriately concerned about the President's plans to take over Greenland,” Warner said.
“This scattershot approach of foreign policy doesn't make America stronger,” he added.
While in Richmond, Warner presented a check for $500,000 for SupportWorks’ project to build 60 units for homeless people, topping off the $10 million Richmond, Henrico County and Chesterfield County have put up to get the work off to a fast start.
Raising funds for affordable housing usually requires months of asking many potential donors and lenders, while federal and local government committees have gotten that effort off to a fast track, moving the start of construction up by several months to sometime in 2027. So far, SupportWorks has lined up $13.5 million of the $18.5 million project cost and has received support from Richmond Behavioral Health Authority for some essential support services, which have been instrumental to its track record of securing permanent housing for 96% of the people it helps.
“There was a time in my life when I was homeless, … I woke up with fear, I went to sleep with shame, and somewhere along the way, I started believing that was all my life was. The hardest part wasn't sleeping on the couch or knowing where my next meal was. It was feeling completely hopeless,” said Jaya Frye, an internal case worker at SupportWorks New Clay apartments.
“Having housing changed everything for me. For the first time in a long time, I had a door I could close. I had a bed that was mine. I had a safe place to breathe, and when you don't have housing, it's almost impossible to focus on healing, but when I got the stability, I finally found foundation to rebuild my life,” she said.
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Sen. Mark Warner says he saw 'no intelligence' of imminent threat from Iran
By Jacob Wendler
In POLITICO
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday he had not seen any intelligence indicating that Iran intended to launch a preemptive strike before the U.S. and Israel launched a joint military operation against the country.
“I saw no intelligence that Iran was on the verge of launching any kind of preemptive strike against the United States of America,” Warner said in a Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
President Donald Trump said in a video posted to social media early Saturday morning that his objective in launching the attack was “to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” But his administration has yet to present any public evidence that a possible attack from Iran on U.S. assets or allies was impending.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Saturday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed seven members of the Gang of Eight — a group including the top leaders of each chamber and the heads of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees which the administration is required to notify of most intelligence operations — before the attack.
Warner called on Trump to “come before Congress and the American people and ask for a declaration of war,” calling the attack on Iran “a war of choice.”
“There was no imminent threat to the United States,” he told host Dana Bash on CNN. “So the decision to put our service members in harm’s way and bases around the region in harm’s way was entirely based upon the president’s decision, not an imminent threat to America.”
Speaking before Warner on “State of the Union,” Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) defended the administration’s justification for the attacks, telling Bash that Trump was right to act before Tehran developed intercontinental missiles.
“What we know they have is thousands of missiles that can hit not just our bases right across the Persian Gulf, but bases as far flung as Western Europe and the Indian Ocean,” he said.
Briefings for several congressional meetings were scheduled for Sunday, and key congressional leaders are set to hear from administration officials as soon as Monday, with a briefing for the entire House also in the works. But Democrats are demanding the administration go further, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asking members of the administration to testify publicly before congressional committees.
Both chambers are also planning to vote on war powers resolutions in the coming days, with a wide swath of Democrats swiftly announcing their intentions to vote against an authorization for the Trump administration.
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Virginia senators demand MSHA answers after fatal West Virginia mine flooding
By Charles Young
In WV News
U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, both Democrats, are pressing federal mine safety officials for answers following a fatal accident at the Rolling Thunder Mine in Nicholas County, West Virginia, last November.
The Nov. 8, 2025, incident claimed the life of 42-year-old Steven Lipscomb, a miner with 19 years of experience. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has formally classified his death as an “inundation,” making it the only inundation-related mining fatality reported in the United States that year. Lipscomb’s death was the 28th mining fatality nationwide in 2025 and one of six West Virginia miners to die on the job that year.
MSHA’s Fatality Alert outlines best practices intended to prevent similar incidents, including using signed maps and local sources to identify abandoned mine workings, maintaining adequate barrier pillars, evaluating interburden thickness, and obtaining appropriate “operations under water” permits when required.
Following the inundation, 24 miners were underground, but no one else was injured. Rescue crews worked around the clock in 12-hour shifts. About 15 workers were underground, eight coordinated on the surface, and another eight staged and fused a new waterline to allow safe entry. Lipscomb’s body was recovered on the morning of Nov. 13, ending a five-day recovery effort.
In a letter sent Wednesday to MSHA, Warner and Kaine questioned the agency’s “swift and coordinated response” to the accident. The senators highlighted reports that the agency did not deploy a seismograph during rescue efforts, despite access to upgraded equipment. The letter asks why MSHA did not alternate between drilling and seismic devices when pumping water made simultaneous use impossible.
“Miners and their families in Virginia and across the country deserve confidence that MSHA prioritizes worker safety,” the senators wrote. “The agency must maintain the capacity to respond to emergencies immediately and adequately.”
Their inquiry comes amid a sharp decline in mine oversight. MSHA currently employs 1,409 people, 14 percent below the staffing levels funded by Congress for fiscal year 2025. Lawmakers said these vacancies undermine the agency’s ability to conduct inspections, enforce safety regulations, and respond promptly to emergencies. National reports cited in the letter indicate that “impact inspections”—targeted at mines with poor compliance or high accident histories—dropped 75 percent during the first five months of the Trump administration.
The push for transparency follows a grim year for the mining industry. In 2025, 33 miners died nationwide, a 27 percent increase from 2024. In addition to Lipscomb, West Virginia fatalities included Robert White, 63, a foreman at the Lower Eagle Mine in Wyoming County; Joey Mitchell, 25, at the Mountain View Mine in Tucker County; Eric Bartram, 41, at the Marfork Processing Plant in Raleigh County; Billy Stalker, 46, at the Black Eagle underground mine in Pettus; and Steven Fields, 55, at the Twilight MTR Surface Mine in Boone County.
“For generations, our nation’s coal miners have made tremendous sacrifices... to power America,” the senators wrote. “We all share an urgent responsibility to guarantee that every available tool to protect miner safety is utilized appropriately.”
Warner and Kaine have requested a detailed timeline of all safety violations and enforcement actions at the Rolling Thunder Mine prior to the Nov. 8 tragedy. MSHA has not publicly responded.
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ARL Now: Sen. Warner Seeks National Edge on AI, While Preparing for Potential Workforce Disruptions
Feb 24 2026
Sen. Warner seeks national edge on AI, while preparing for potential workforce disruptions
By Dan Egitto
In ARL Now
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) hopes to maintain national competitiveness on AI while preparing the U.S. economy for potentially massive disruptions brought on by new technology.
Speaking yesterday (Monday) at the grand opening of a new Ballston office for the cybersecurity company KnowBe4, which focuses on human and AI risk management, the senator emphasized the need to prepare for sweeping technological changes and their impacts on society.
In the near term, Warner cautioned that artificial intelligence could bring strife to early-career professionals in particular, even as it unlocks new opportunities and helps maintain a national edge against China.
“While I believe that AI is going to bring enormous positive benefits to society over the next decade, I think in the short run — next two to five to seven years — it is going to bring economic disruption unlike anything we’ve seen,” Warner said.
Calling AI “enormously complicated and enormously transformative,” Warner forecasted a surge in unemployment among recent college graduates as advancements make many entry-level jobs obsolete. This concerns the lawmaker, especially since he said major industry leaders haven’t presented a clear picture of how to resolve the fallout of the technology they’re developing.
“You press them on what you should actually be trained to do — they don’t really know either,” he said.
Warner said he wants to push the AI industry to help design and fund a “transition program,” potentially assisting college students or recent graduates in rapidly changing their career trajectories.
“We’re going to have to really kind of stretch our brains, in terms of how we make sure that this positive transformation that’s going to be brought about by AI is also still inclusive,” the senator said. “Because if not, you’ve got populists on the left and the right that will come and shut down that innovation.”
Warner is particularly concerned about ceding the AI race to China — which he characterized as having an “authoritarian approach” to the technology and looser ethical standards, in addition to a history of cyberattacks against the United States. He said that a measured strategy, where lawmakers are “not trying to limit innovation but also recognizing that some guardrails make sense,” will give the United States an upper hand without turning public opinion against advancements.
“If we screw this up, we could end up having such a backlash against this technology that … we’re going to walk away from it and lose the advantage we have now on China, who’s not going to back off,” the senator told ARLnow.
Warner’s mix of short-term caution and long-term optimism on AI is similar to that of U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in machine learning at George Mason University. Beyer has compared coming advancements to the Industrial Revolution and Agricultural Revolution, but has said they will likely take place much more quickly, requiring large-scale responses from governing authorities.
“I think it is very fair to think that artificial intelligence will create more jobs than it eliminates,” the congressman said in 2024. “The challenge, of course, is the people whose jobs we’re eliminating do not necessarily have the skillsets, at that moment, to take on new jobs.”
In Ballston yesterday, Warner joined County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti and members of Arlington’s business community in applauding KnowBe4’s arrival at 4075 Wilson Blvd. The company, which works with more than 70,000 organizations around the world, offers email security services, AI “defense agents” to spot potential risks, and training to help respond to AI-based threats like deepfakes and misinformation.
“By expanding in Arlington, we are working side-by-side with federal agencies, local governments, and educational institutions to protect humans and AI agents,” CEO Bryan Palma said in a press release. “Our expansion also allows us to recruit the area’s best and brightest talent to outpace AI-driven threats and secure the future of our most critical public services.”
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13News Now: Virginia Sen. Warner Says Trump’s Push to Nationalize Elections Threatens Democracy
Feb 04 2026
Virginia Sen. Warner says Trump’s push to nationalize elections threatens democracy
By Kathleen Lundy
In 13News Now
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner on Tuesday warned that former President Donald Trump is escalating what he called a dangerous threat to free and fair elections, following Trump’s renewed push to nationalize voting.
Speaking during a news conference as part of his intelligence oversight role, Warner said recent actions and rhetoric blur long-standing legal and constitutional boundaries separating the White House, law enforcement, intelligence agencies and elections.
“The strength of our democracy depends upon clear lines between politics and law enforcement, between intelligence and criminal investigations, and most importantly between the White House and the ballot box,” Warner said. “What happened in Georgia last week erased those lines.”
Warner stressed his concerns are not about relitigating the 2020 election.
“This is not about the 2020 election,” Warner said. “That election has been litigated, audited, recounted, and repeatedly upheld by courts and election officials, including lots and lots of Republican election officials. This is frankly about what comes next.”
He pointed directly to Trump’s comments calling for Republicans to take over and nationalize voting in multiple states, warning the threat is forward-looking and could impact future elections.
“That statement alone makes clear that this threat to our election security, the basic premise of our democracy, is forward-looking — the 2026 and 2028 elections,” Warner said. “This is about whether these same tactics we’re seeing now, or worse, will be used to disrupt free and fair elections.”
According to ABC News, President Trump doubled down Tuesday on his controversial proposal, repeating false claims of widespread voter fraud and again refusing to accept his 2020 loss.
“If a state can’t run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it,” Trump said during a bill signing in the Oval Office surrounded by Republican lawmakers, according to ABC News. “Because, if you think about it, the state is an agent for the federal government in elections. I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do ’em anyway.”
Trump added that in some cases, “The federal government should get involved. These are agents of the federal government to count the votes. If they can’t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take it over,” ABC News reported.
Warner said those comments, combined with recent federal actions in Georgia, raise serious constitutional concerns — particularly the involvement of Tulsi Gabbard, who was present during an FBI operation at a local elections office in Fulton County.
“It is inappropriate for the Director of National Intelligence to insert herself into a domestic law-enforcement operation far outside her statutory role,” Warner said. “The Director of National Intelligence does not conduct criminal investigations. She has no role executing search warrants, and she does not belong on the scene of a domestic FBI search.”
Warner warned that intelligence agencies are legally structured to operate overseas — not on domestic soil — and said laws enacted after abuses during the Nixon era were designed to prevent exactly this kind of political interference.
When taken together, Warner said, the president’s rhetoric and recent federal actions point to an effort to shape future election outcomes.
“When you put all of this together, it is clear that what happened in Fulton County is not about revisiting the past,” Warner said. “It is about shaping the outcome of future elections and dismantling the very guardrails that were put in place to keep them free and fair.”
Warner said he is calling on Gabbard to testify under oath before the Senate Intelligence Committee, saying Americans deserve elections “safe from political intimidation” and a justice system that operates independently.
“If it doesn’t scare the heck out of you,” Warner said, “it should.”
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CNBC: Sen. Warner Calls Gabbard to Testify After Georgia Election Office Raid, Trump FBI Call
Feb 03 2026
Sen. Warner calls Gabbard to testify after Georgia election office raid, Trump FBI call
By Kevin Breuninger
In CNBC
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., on Tuesday called on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to testify in person before the Senate Intelligence Committee about her appearance at an FBI raid on a Georgia election office last week.
Warner, the vice chairman of the intelligence panel, said he was especially concerned that Gabbard facilitated a phone call between those FBI agents and President Donald Trump after the search warrant was executed.
“Let’s be clear: It is inappropriate for a sitting president to personally involve himself in a criminal investigation tied to an election he lost,” Warner told reporters on Capitol Hill.
The senator also sounded alarms about Trump’s recent suggestion that Republicans should “take over” and “nationalize” elections.
“That statement alone makes clear that this threat to our election security, the basic premise of our democracy, is forward looking to 2026 into 2028,” he said.
Warner’s comments turn up the volume on Democrats’ growing fears that Trump — who vehemently refused to accept his 2020 election loss, and continues to falsely claim that he won that race — may try to meddle in the upcoming midterms.
Even as the minority party, Democrats in the Senate have the power to compel people to testify.
Warner accused Gabbard’s office of systematically “dismantling” various guardrails designed to protect elections.
“When you put all of this together, it is clear that what happened in Fulton County is not about revisiting the past, it is about shaping the outcome of future elections,” he said.
In a letter to Warner and other lawmakers on Monday, Gabbard said her presence at the Fulton County election office was “requested” by Trump and that she only observed the execution of an FBI search warrant there “for a brief period of time.”
Spokespeople for the county have confirmed that the federal agents were seeking records related to 2020 elections. Fulton County Superior Court Clerk Che Alexander told local outlet WSB-TV last week, “They took 24 pallets, which encompassed 656 boxes of 2020 election documents.”
Gabbard said in the letter that, as DNI, she has “broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security, including counterintelligence (CI), foreign and other malign influence and cybersecurity.”
Asked for comment on the senator’s remarks, ODNI spokeswoman Olivia Coleman told CNBC in an email that Gabbard’s letter “addresses, in detail, much of what Warner said today.” Coleman did not address Warner’s call for Gabbard to testify.
Gabbard also appeared to broadly confirm The New York Times’ report that, during a meeting with FBI agents after the raid, she called up Trump and put him on speakerphone to praise them for their work.
“While visiting the FBI Field Office in Atlanta, I thanked the FBI agents for their professionalism and great work, and facilitated a brief phone call for the President to thank the agents personally for their work,” Gabbard wrote in the letter.
The Times, citing three people with knowledge of the meeting, reported that Trump asked the agents questions, which were mostly fielded by the squad supervisor who developed evidence for the search of the election office.
Gabbard’s letter said Trump “did not ask any questions, nor did he or I issue any directives” on the call.
She added that her office’s general counsel “has found my actions to be consistent and well within my statutory authorities.”
Warner rejected that defense.
“The broad authority to analyze intelligence is not a license to participate in a sham investigation,” he said. “And it certainly does not justify facilitating direct contact between the frontline FBI agents doing this investigation, directly to the president of the United States.”
Meanwhile, Trump, in a podcast interview with former deputy FBI director Dan Bongino that was released Monday, called on members of the Republican Party to “take over the voting.”
He made that suggestion after echoing the conspiracy theory that noncitizens are being “brought” into the U.S. to vote illegally. Trump tied the claim — which has been repeatedly debunked — with his administration’s aggressive efforts to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
“If we don’t get them out, Republicans will never win another election,” Trump told Bongino.
It’s “amazing that the Republicans aren’t tougher on it. The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places,’” Trump said.
“The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” he went on. “We have states that are so crooked, and they’re counting votes. We have states that I won that show I didn’t win.”
States are primarily responsible for governing their own election systems.
“You’re going to see something in Georgia, where they were able to get, with the court order and the ballots,” Trump added in the interview. “You’re going to see some interesting things come out.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, asked Tuesday why Gabbard is involved in the Georgia operation, said Trump has tapped her to “oversee the sanctity and the security of our American elections.”
“This is a coordinated, whole-of-government effort to ensure that our elections, again, are fair and transparent moving forward,” Leavitt said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Tuesday both defended Trump’s comments about nationalizing elections.
“What you’re hearing from the president is his frustration about the lack of some of the blue states, frankly, of enforcing these things and making sure that they are free and fair elections,” Johnson said.
Thune said, “I think the president has clarified what he meant by that, and that is that he supports the SAVE Act,” referring to legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
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Virginia Dogwood: Does Contacting Your Lawmaker Actually Help? I Asked Virginia’s Senior US Senator
Jan 30 2026
Does contacting your lawmaker actually help? I asked Virginia’s senior US senator
By Amie Knowles
In Virginia Dogwood
As immigration raids, ICE accountability, and federal power dominate headlines, Sen. Mark Warner reveals what really happens when Virginians contact his office—and how public opinion can help shape policy.
A question that’s been on my mind lately is how to help support good people who’re being negatively impacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). I’ve seen the protests, and I’ve read the commentary on what to do if you’re in an area of a raid—but another thing I’ve heard is to contact your representative.
In fact, I hear that from time to time, whether it’s over a question, concern, or idea for change. Contact your representative. But I’ve lived in Virginia for three decades—and I’ve never once reached out to an elected official’s office to advocate for anything.
Where would my letter—or call, text, or email—go? Who would read it and hear my opinions? What are the chances that my idea would spark action? I wasn’t sure, so I went to the source. I asked US Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat running for reelection this fall, during a recent media call.
Prompting action
I’ll never forget producing media coverage about the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act (JCLSA), signed into law on October 11, 2022. In the months leading up to the passage of the bill Warner introduced, the senator often told the story—not only of why the legislation, which would split up the cost of a couple’s previously combined student loans in situations like divorce or abuse, was important, but also of Sara, a mother of two from McLean who struggled to pay her ex-husband’s share of their joint student loan.
In Sara’s case, she’d moved thousands of miles away from her ex to start life anew—but when he stopped paying his portion of the loan, that put the single mother on a public school teacher’s salary at risk of wage garnishments.
Sara wrote to Warner about not being able to separate the loan—and according to a press release about the legislation that sprouted from that communication, the senator’s office wrote: “Sen. Warner did not think this was fair and sought to create a solution, so that constituents like Sara could control their own financial futures.”
Now, thanks to Sara writing to the senator to express her issue and desire for change, the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act is the law of the land.
Expressing concerns
The senator noted that there’s been a recent uptick in the amount of correspondence his team has received. Much of that is because of concerns over immigration enforcement, blatant abuses of power by ICE and Border Patrol, and the horrific killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minnesota.
“We’ve had almost a record number of calls this week being very concerned about the ICE activities in Minneapolis,” Warner said. “And they’re valid concerns that what happens in Minneapolis could happen next in Richmond, Norfolk, or Roanoke.”
Warner described ICE as an agency “run amok” and in need of “guardrails.”
Cue a proposed ICE processing facility in Ashland.
On Jan. 28 at the Hanover County Board of Supervisors meeting, officials opposed plans for the Department of Homeland Security to acquire 43 acres of land, complete with a 500,000+ square foot warehouse, on Lakeridge Parkway. The board made it clear that Hanover County had no role in the DHS’s selection process, which the federal agency made local leaders aware of on Jan. 22.
According to a larger statement from the board: “The site is located within the Lewistown Commerce Center Community Development Authority, a well-planned area intended for commercial and industrial use. While federal operations are exempt from local zoning regulations, Hanover County has concerns about whether this location is appropriate given its proximity to retail businesses, hotels, restaurants and several residential neighborhoods, including a historic district. The site is also adjacent to county-owned land intended for future public use.”
About Hanover County—a generally conservative area—denouncing the idea of an ICE facility in their locale, Warner said if it was the will of the community, he wanted to try to work with them.
“The ICE abuses have now gotten people’s attention in a darn dramatic way; and then, it’s my job to respond,” Warner said.
Getting in touch
Not all questions or concerns that appear in Warner’s inbox, mailbox, or voicemail center around current events. Sometimes, people write to acknowledge a kind deed a Virginian performed, and other times, they inquire about federal policies or proposed laws that could impact their community.
On Jan. 26, Warner posted on Facebook: “Virginians: Your voice matters to me. We’re understandably hearing from a lot of folks right now. My team is doing its best to answer every call, but if you don’t want to wait on hold, you can always send a message through my website—every single one gets read.”
So as for writing, calling, texting, or emailing the senator?
“It is important,” Warner said. “It’s important to hear from Virginians.”
Click here to access a multitude of ways to contact Warner, and here to contact US Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA). Never contacted your representative before? Americans of Conscience Checklist provides five tips for making stress-free calls.
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