President Trump finds himself
right where he wants to be, in this case,
Waco, Texas,
near the 30th anniversary of the standoff
with that infamous cult,
the former president was there
at the center
of a new
political maelstrom Saturday afternoon
lashing out at his enemies
and nursing
personal grievances
alongside his diehard fans,
lying about the 2020 election
and making martyrs of the folks
who violently stormed the Capito
As so many in his party
seem to be snapping back in the
behind him, in his first officia
24 campaign rally, Donald Trump
much of his time
railing against the multiple
criminal investigations
into his actions and his behavio
Tomorrow, the grand jury in New
hush money
case is set to reconvene
as District Attorney
Alvin Bragg
weighs indicting
a former president for the first
in American history.
And then a separate Justice
Department investigation.
This week,
a federal judge rejected the Tru
claims of executive privilege
in the probe into January six.
And the judge ordered
top Trump White House aides to t
The Justice Department is also,
of course, investigating the former preside
over that classified documents
case just classified
documents discovered at Mar a La
Joining us now,
Senate Intelligence Committee Ch
Mark Warner. Chairman Warner.
Good to see you.
Let me start with the fact
that Donald Trump is explicit
only raising
the possibility of,
quote, death and destruction
if he ends up facing charges
in the Manhattan hush money case
A charging decision
could theoretically come
as soon as tomorrow.
How concerned are you
that there could be more violenc
because of Donald Trump's rhetor
because
well, we
all recall
the horrors that took place
on January 6th,
spurred on by then President Tru
I think the fact that he's calli
protests
again, I've been briefed by the
They say they are fully prepared
But this kind of outrageous beha
This man obviously has
very little moral compass.
And if he spurs on additional vi
it would be one further stain
on his already checkered reputat
What can you tell us about
what the FBI is telling you?
Are there are genuine threats of
because of the things
that Donald Trump
is telling his supporters
You know, I got briefed
before the supposed Tuesday indi
that didn't come to pass.
We've had an update.
They've seen no specific strains
But the level of rhetoric on
some of these right wing sites
has increased again,
I would hope that
some of your Republican guests
on your show this morning would
you know, you've got a right
to have a First Amendment protes
but that right, this should not
pass into violence and
the horrific activities
that took place on January 6th.
God willing,
we will not see them repeated th
Should any one of these cases
move forward on Trump?
Well, let's talk about the fact
that the first one
might be this New York case,
which has to do with the hush mo
payments made to
a porn star and director.
It is a business offense
that might be a misdemeanor.
Your fellow Democrat, Senator Ma
Kelly, told me that there are ri
in taking
the unprecedented step
of charging any former president
and that prosecutors
better have a strong case to bac
if they go forward. Do you agree
Well, I do, Jake.
I think that,
you know,
whichever of these prosecutions
move forward and
Lord knows this guy is appears t
as many things
done, lots of things inappropria
But I hope whoever moves
forward has a rock solid case
A federal judge
this week ordered
Donald Trump's lawyer
to testify before the grand jury
investigating Trump's
handling of classified informati
You and your counterpart on the
Intelligence Committee, Senator
Marco Rubio,
said that a Biden administration
briefing last month on the docum
quote, left much to be desired.
And the Biden administration's r
to provide more details, quote,
doesn't pass the smell test.
Is there anything you can and wi
to compel the Biden administrati
to let you know
more about what these documents
are to even turn them over to yo
Well, Jake,
remember, our
interest from the intel side
is not about the mishandling by
Biden, Pence.
That's a criminal investigation.
Our job is to oversee
the intelligence community.
And while we have
some sense of what
some of these documents are, and
I want to make sure
that if they fell into the wrong
hands, there's been mitigation e
We have an obligation
to see these documents
and again,
make sure that if
there's any potential compromise
it's mitigated.
We took the first step.
I'm not satisfied.
We have expressed that.
And it's just makes no sense to
that somehow
the special prosecutor's equitie
on the criminal proceeding
somehow takes precedence over ou
you know, Article one
responsibility to oversee
the intelligence community.
We've made that clear.
We have some additional ways
we can ratchet up the pressure
on the ICI.
Senator Rubio and I and frankly,
this is completely bipartisan.
All the Democrats,
all the Republicans on the commi
feel the same.
We also are going to
try to press
the Justice Department harder
to make sure that we do
can do our job as well.
We learned yesterday
shifting topics to overseas
that Russia is planning to stati
tactical nuclear weapons in Bela
It's yet another escalation of t
with the West and tensions with
Russia says it's just doing what
already does with countries in E
What's your response? To the Rus
My response is twofold.
Putin is a dangerous man.
We've always known that.
We've seen
that the Russian offensive and i
that a city
in the eastern part of Ukraine
seems to have stalled out.
I'm hopeful
that the Ukrainian counteroffens
is going to be successful.
And I think it also drives home
the point that any wannabe
American political leader
that refuses to acknowledge
how dangerous Putin is
or that somehow that if Putin
is successful in Ukraine,
that is against our national int
What that would do
in terms of threatening
the Baltic states,
what it would do
in terms of threatening Poland,
what it would do
in terms
of giving President
Xi more of a green light
to potentially take action
against Taiwan.
Anyone who doesn't understand th
remarkably naive or not understa
the kind of geopolitical
challenging times that we live i
the United States
Retaliated with airstrikes on Fr
after an American contractor
was killed in Syria
and five service members were wo
This is by a suspected
Iranian affiliated drone attack
Since then, there have been four
additional attacks on U.S.
forces by these Iranian linked g
How worried are you about
the risk of further escalation
and on the other hand,
do you think the Biden administr
has maybe not been doing enough
to deter
these kinds of attacks against U
troops by Iran affiliates
There has been this
low level of violence in Syria
literally over the last year.
And the strikes
that the administration took
that took out and caused casualt
among some of these Iranian back
I think was appropriate.
And I think if they continue, th
we are up the ante in terms of
the strikes that we send back.
But remember,
we have a couple thousand troops
in both Iraq and Syria
working with the Kurdish forces.
Who still are in the process
of wiping up
the final remnants of the ISIS f
And there are a number of ISIS p
being held.
It's a dangerous area but I do t
the administration's response so
has been appropriate.