On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) responded to arguments from co-host Joe Kernen that Democrats don’t have much room to talk about screw-ups with the Signal story after the Afghanistan withdrawal by saying he’s surprised Kernen wasn’t “going to throw in Hillary’s servers.”
Kernen said, “But in terms of going after terrorists and in terms of what we’ve seen accomplished, even this was a success in what happened. And some of the — I thought some of the — what we know about the texts was fairly thoughtful. You remember the Biden administration started with the biggest f-up in history, with Afghanistan and 13 dead Americans. Let’s not get too sanctimonious and high and mighty about screwing up, Senator.”
Warner responded, “Should we go back even to –.”
Kernen cut in to point out that Afghanistan was only four years ago.
Warner then said, “I’m surprised, Joe, you’re not going to throw in Hillary’s servers.”
Warner added that Kernen should at least acknowledge there was a mistake made, which Kernen did.
Warner further stated, “The bombing was a success, God bless. Thank God the person on the line wasn’t an Iranian spy and they could have given that to the Houthis and that bombing success might have turned into something that cost American lives. At least acknowledge that’s what[‘s] at stake. And if that kind of mistake is made, and I go back to what I said in the earlier teaser, if this was a military officer or a CIA case officer, their butts would be fired.”
Earlier in the interview, Kernen asked Warner if he called for then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to resign when he disappeared.
Warner responded that he criticized Austin and stated that the situation with the Signal call was part of a pattern and “two weeks in, … they released, inadvertently, 200 names of CIA officers, so their identities were discovered.”
He also stated that DOGE has released classified information.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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