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‘Trump acting like third world dictator’: Senator Mark Warner at #HTLS2020
US Senator from Virginia, Mark Warner spoke at the 18th edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2020. He hit out at ...
About Mark Warner
In a September 2021 appearance at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Senator Mark Warner commented on the 2020 U.S. presidential transition. He stated that President Donald Trump had not conceded the election and said he found it "very disturbing" that Trump was not willing to go through with the transition. Warner said he believed no one in the White House or among his Republican Senate colleagues thought Trump could overturn the election results, but noted that many Republican colleagues had been "unwilling to publicly speak that out." Warner said that Trump's comments about a rigged election were "the kind of comments that you would expect to hear out of a third world dictator who doesn't like the results of democracy." He said that Trump's behavior tarnished America's global standing, but also noted that the election system had worked: there was record turnout, minimal foreign interference, no violent clashes between supporters, and the recount and judicial systems had upheld the results.
Transcript (4 segments)
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Interviewer0:07
Let me start. We had a transition which seems to be taking place, but we have a president who has not conceded on the election. As you go forward, how do you see this transition taking place? Where do you see the president eventually conceding, or will he keep on being obstructionist for the next four years?
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Mark Warner0:33
Well, that's a great question, and I'm not sure anyone has the answer to that. I mean, we've seen the growth of authoritarian leaders all over the world. We've seen that in Turkey, we've seen in Hungary, we see the continued rise in Russia, we see the Chinese leadership becoming more and more authoritarian. And we didn't think it would potentially take place here in the United States. But in Donald Trump, even though he was soundly defeated by a six million vote margin and President-elect Biden received the same number of electoral votes, 306, as President Trump had received in 2016, so a major win. President Trump has not conceded officially. I think there's virtually no one in the White House or any of my Republican Senate colleagues who believe he's going to be able to overturn the results of the election. But many of my Republican colleagues have been unwilling to publicly speak that out. My hope is, I think they keep hoping that he will ultimately accept the results. But there is an overhang here on this election that is unlike anything that has taken place in modern American history. And my hope is, you know, our process in the United States will have the electors of the Electoral College vote, I believe, on December 14th. But I find it very disturbing if we have to go through two more weeks of a President Trump not being willing to willingly go through with the transition. At least, thank goodness, we have transitions in place. The President-elect and Vice President-elect are getting the intelligence briefs that are critically important. We all know we live in a dangerous world. So I'm optimistic, but I cannot, Lukash, I could not predict what Donald Trump was going to do, and I'm not even sure people in the White House could predict what Donald Trump is going to do or not do.
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Interviewer2:41
That's true. But Senator, you know, America was always seen as the beacon on the hill, the light on democracy. And you have a president who's calling the election rigged, fraud. Does that tarnish America's image on a global standing?
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Mark Warner2:59
I think it does. I think you hear these kind of comments that you would expect to hear out of a third world dictator who doesn't like the results of democracy. And I think that around the world there is a great interest in a return to traditional American leadership. But it would be less than straightforward if Mr. Trump's comments don't tarnish a bit American democracy. On the other hand, let me just take a moment and say if I had to go back 60 days and look at what we were looking at 30 days before this election, we were concerned about foreign interference. We were concerned that people might not vote because of COVID. We were concerned literally about the threat of Trump's supporters showing up with firearms and trying to intimidate voters, and there was even a threat of potentially violence. And the good news is that we have seen literally the foreign interference and misinformation was kept to a bare minimum. We had a record turnout of American voters. Trump supporters or Biden supporters did not clash violently in the aftermath of the election. Our election recount system worked, the judicial system worked. In many ways, with the exception of Mr. Trump's behavior, the American electoral system should be celebrated because the system worked, even with this enormous stress coming from Donald Trump. That's not the popular story out there, but it's something that I want to try to make the case. If we look back objectively, record turnout, no foreign intervention, and the recount and judicial system protected the results.