conversation. >> hi, everyone. i would like to welcome senator mark warner. i'm the white house bureau chief. he co-chairs the senate cybersecurity caucus and vice president for the senate selects committee. >> thank you. >> a lot of news has been made here. i want to start with your

reaction to president zelenskyy's speech. >> he made a strong case to stand with ukraine about for europe and the world. my hope is that as one of the folks who are a stronger supporter i wish we could get the last aid package six points earlier but i still think they while outnumbered in the adrenaline activity i hope is starting to shift a little bit of the battle front. >> i think the experience everyone was most anticipating were zelenskyy and vice president j.d. vance,and the contrast could not be more stark. what do you make of the vice president's speech and particularly telling european

allies their biggest threat is from within? >> first i don't think the vice president spoke for the majority of americans. i don't think he spoke for the majority of democrats. i don't think he spoke for the majority of republicans. in terms of how he views the alliance with europe. how yield it is to america's long-term security. iffing everything is simply a transaction tactic then the kind of 70 plus years of alliance we have had won't stand the test of time. i was disappointed by the tone as somebody who was our committee intelligence committee that did did deepest dive into the russian intervention in the 2016 elections it was bipartisan. for him to can kind of justin estimate the power of

misinformation and disinformation shows i'm not sure he's read were history. the ability of particularly russia to overthrow regimes based on misinformation and dizzy information is real and can be done at speed and came with ai tools that make threat greater. >> how do you think russia received that speech? >> i think that if suddenly he or the secretary of defense are starting to take negotiating items r items off the table how is that anything but positive for russia. that follows on some of the activities of the doge group that have been celebrated by russia, china, iran as you start to see for example 70 years of american soft power through

usaid and other institutions try to be almost erased or disappeared in the first three weeks of the administration. that is great news for china or russia that can come in and quickly supplement where america has provided humanitarian or medical aid. there's not a person particular will i some of our retired military that don't make the -- that don't strongly stand up for the soft power foreign aid represents. >> let's get into doge and elon musk because i think everyone has been reading headlines out of that group. when it comes to security both national appear global how is elon musk's work having an impact? >> we don't know yet. the democrats on the intelligence committee have written to say who are the doge folks, what level of clearance do they have.

we have seen release of classified information in terms of the national reconnaissance organization and number of employees. that may have been ignorance. or the mistake made on sending names of c.i.a. agents -- r it shows a lack of understanding of how long it takes to get a clearance appear train someone to be that careless. we don't know the security level clearances the doge folks -- i do think our committee has automatics been partisan, senator cotton is the care now and we are going to i believe jointly try to get the answers but i have huge security concerns when of 22-year-olds who may not appreciate the value of the information they have

being so careless. next, the one individual who is at treasury was 25 and got fired for a wraoeul because of racist comments. this individual having visibility into america's checkbook it is no secret to say america or any other nation state sometimes does covert actions through another entity. you send out that information and you could destroy operations that is taken years to build. >> i think all of us who have been reporting on president trump for a long time know some republicans lawmakers will say certain things publicly and sometimes have a different message hraoupb closed doors. your republican colleagues on the intel committee what is that conversation is there alarm or newly supportive of what doge is doing and you did don't have two name names. >> let's put it like this.

we are a very bipartisan committee that lung together. i raised the question of the new d.n.i. but i think there a number of folks with concerns. it will be interesting to see when and where this breaks. it may not break at the congressional level first. virginia is home for a lot of federal employees over 150,000 a lot of contractors. we are seeing for example on the so-called government freeze that supposedly has been untphroefrpb yet we have community helmet centers shutting down because they didn't get it funds. we have head start programs stopping. my belief is this may start to bubble from the ground up where local republican elected officials will be the first to break as we have projects in virginia we have been working for years on economic

development that the money that will make projects up for grabs. so it pay start at the local level and go to state appear percolate to the federal level. but of evidence of how significant this is we go back to russell vought the new head of o.m.b. who made his claim and been successful he wanted to traumatize the federal workforce. senators often do what is call tele-town has where you have a call out to random numbers and senator warn will be on the line for an hour. you usually hit 3,000 to 35,000 on one of those details. tim contain and i did one and had 71,000 people. >> have you ever had that big audience for a town hall? >> woupblt of every 10 voters in virginia. 60 of them stayed on the whole hour so this is causing launch

concern and the unfortunate thing is even as a senior senator i didn't have a lot of'ses. >> when you see folks like gabbard being confirm and you think of president trump has, had allegations of mishandling classified information, how are those allies thinking about those alliances, those commitments. >> on the intel side there is no document that says we will share that information. we get about 50% of intelligence

from allies. that exchange of information is based on trust totally. if that trust is burned, that information is not going to be shared. >> where does the trust stand? >> i think some of our intelligence partner i met here are in a wait and see mode. they want two work with the administration. they hope the new orleans of protecting classified information will be maintained. they hope if they share some of the most intelligence they collect it will be protected. but i think there's an understandable wariness, so i'm thinking folks are hoping for the best. >> what happens if some of those allies decide we are pulling back here? >> intelligence sharing is a

two-way street. many allies don't want to lose the intelligent they get from america but these are the kinds of relationships that once burned takes a long time to recover. god anybody that happens it will make the united states less secure. >> o.b.m. said national security rules would be exempt in the fork in the road but we have since reporteded it is available it several intelligence agencies and d.o.d. are you worried about him remain of senior -- >> first of all, it is crazy -- it will be interested to see if you can did document savings but the idea you are going to offer a buyout to a c.i.a. field operative or buyout to an n.s.a. code breaker and replace them

with a 22-year-old code the way you replace somebody at at tech company shows a complete lack of understanding of what the intelligence community does, how long it takes to get the expertise and it is not intercan changeable. so there is still the leadership in some of the leadership at some agencies i know have been quickly trying to include more people in the excluded category but to me from the outside and seeing this it seems like it is chaotic. >> you have been here a few days. what have you heard from some of our allies when it comes to what is happening in washington particularly with doge and some of the newly confirmed cabinet members? >> on doge i think there's a as somebody who was a business guy before i was in politics the

idea of a doge made a lot of sense. there are lots of ways to bring efficiency. defense can contracting, making loser pays with resolutions, have more fixed price contracts. that is where you could bring innovation, that is what i thought we were going to get instead a sledgehammer at the workforce with people who have no knowledge of the functions of the agencies they are going after. then the backtracking at department of energy when they said oops maybe we schuppe fire the people will take control of nuclear materials. that kind of lack of knowledge and irresponsible approach is making people scratch their heads. it is making americans scratch their heads, the european people, that is one reason with some of my republican colleagues as we were coming over there before the vice president'

spaefrp that -- speech this is the most important munich conference we had to come to to say regardless of what is coming out were the white house we are not walking away from nato or alliance or trading partnerships. >> so that is what you wanted to deliver that was important. is that the message that was delivered from the americans? >> well, it depends on which americans you talk about. i'm not sure -- i can't say that i have heard everyone of my congressional colleagues but i don't think any of them have echoed the vice president's comments. again, there may be self-selection if you are on this you are more pro nato or pro europe but i have yet to hear anyone echo that -- and i believe almost naive dismissal of the power of misinformation an disinformation. >> i think the challenge for

some allies here throw is you have folks like yourself and some republican colleagues who might be on a similar page but those are not the folks in the overall office, right? ultimately the buck stops with president trump and what vice president vance delivered he is speaking for the administration. how should our allies take your messaging advices have what you are hearing in "the west wing"? >> it is hard to believe, but we are not even a month into this new administration. it was like 20 years in dog years. but i think as in any administration there's going to be competition. folks like mike waltz and others with a more traditional view of rinse i think it is -- time will

tell -- who wins out. but i'm not sure -- everybody sometimes describes president trump as crazy like a fox or something. but with vice president' comments. secretaries of defense comments and how they backtrack, if this is strategy, it is at a level much higher tan my ability to compute. it was moreed a lock throwing stuff at the wall. >> in that environment what is going on with democrats? seriously, what can you do? how can you reassure constituents -- i heard from a lot of voters it was like cricket right now. >> i think the first week or so democrats were reeling. since that team, i think both in terms of virtual -- i voted for

his of his people the first time. that first week or so i voted for a lot of his nominees those in the mainstream. that has changed. you are seeing a lot of redress to the courts and the courts so far have stood up for raul of law. -- rule of law the brave u.s. attorney in new york standing up against an outrageous attempted pardon of the mayor. i think you are also starting to see americans rise up. there was not the kind of resistance movement that happened after the first trump effort but i think it is now -- the level of voices rising, the amount of output we are trying to put out has dramatically increased. >> but his popularity has never

been higher. how do you deal with that? >> let's see what that is in two weeks as some of these effects of community health centering down or neighbors out of work that worker the government. because the government is not just in washington, d.c. one thing i'm not sure my european friends know the size of the federal workforce in america in 2028 is about the size it was in 1970's. when people start saying the foods inspector is being fired, park ranger is being fired i think they will feel the effectses. but at the congressional level there are effects when you lose and you have a trifecta of the other party having both houses of congress and presidency and with some of the rule changes is one reason why 10 years ago when we got rid of the filibuster on

nominees and moved it to a 5 street majority i taught that was going to bite us. it has. >> it seems like when i have been talking to democrats there's sort of a split, the idea you should be the resistance, say no to everything. they have told me let them fail, watch them fail. there are others that say wait a minute, this is real stuff, these are americans' lives where we did have common ground we should engage. >> you have to find -- donald trump is the president of the united states. i want him to succeed because i want america to succeed. but that doesn't mean you give whim a pass -- him a pass on irresponsible actions arson -- around security or turn a blind eye on buyouts. what is initial sign of any

scam. you a call right away, offer is over at midnight. there is no money for the buyouts. the federal government runs out march 14. i fear these people will be left without a job and eight months pay. we will fight to every level on throws but i won't go into the sense of there are things that we can help make sure american stays stronger particularly in the terms of authoritarian threats. >> i have to ask, i was in the ram during the -- ram during the press conference held with net -- netanyahu where he ainfluenced a plan i don't think anybody spec'd the riviera of the middle east. you met with netanyahu after

that. what was the prime minister's take on the plan? >> i don't agree with him on a lot of skills with you he is a very skilled politician and it say maybe there's a merit of good ideas i think everybody was surprised. how is that for the understatement of the day? >> do you get the sense that he is on board with there -- it plan? >> well, some of his willingness to move his government to the right i don't see any path that has displacement of two million palestinians in gaza. i continue to be amazed with all of the challenges and some of the internal corruption within the p.a., i'm amazed their security forces keep showing up

for work on west bank. i continue to fear if they decide we are not going to work you could have what would mac make prefer violence nothing many whether it is gaza or west bank preconcludes the abilities to negotiate a treaty between saudi arabia and israel. it diminishes the ability to have the sunni stations with israel and america and europe have a more of a united front against iran. i think that is long-term detriment. >> one of the challenges for us as journalists covering this information is flooding the zone is a strategy and it means that there's so much happening all at once and you can't give an

audience 360 degrees at the same time. so -- >> what about my time? it is the same thing. the outrage happens and how you temper your reaction it things, realize this is the kind of classic clash slay it is a marathon. >> you can't have the volume up all the time. >> volume on defcom five on every item. i think that is what president trump is doing by flooding the zone. >> i was going to ask you the question i can't answer. what do you over the last three weeks, what have been those moments where you thought here is where we need to turn the volume up? >> first of all, i think i guess what i would say is i expected to have a flood.

i don't know expect a tsunami. i think after that first week was we had the initial e.o.'s they were all kind of in the range of what was expected. the doge crowd of young folks without clearances getting access to information just so goes against the grain of everything i have learned in the flat security community -- national security it is stunning to me. the fact that you could see the 70 years of soft power and look any entity there are bad programs but that you erase usaid and the good it does i spent a lot of time the last year on sudan where more people die every day than gaza and

ukraine. we tried to open channels to sudan and there are no good guys in sudan. and america can help that. the fact that we have american medicine rotting because we can't pay the aid workers to distribute to the population and china can come right behind and for pennies on the dollar play a much more imagine role. -- major role that is a defcom five. so the long-term loss that we have in some of these nations is irreplaceable. >> let's talk about reconciliation since there's movement on budgets plan this week. what is your take on one bill, two bill is in a world democrats vote in favor of any of this? >> one, do i think there will be democratic votes on the republican reconciliation plans

utah there? no. we have not been straighted in. if you can see in american politics where it was the front tax bill, obama care, when you pass something with only one party, that means all you are going to do is relitigate later. there was a value in bipartisan not because the ideas are better but both parties own gooded a bad of the program. when they talk about trillions of cuts an frankly all the benefits will go to the top and i'm a pro-business democrat. all of these benefits go to the top that is not fair or right and i don't think that -- i remember 15 years ago i had my first gang was around simpson he bowles plan where we were approaching drawer 17 trillion in debt and how to cut back.

we were unsuccessful, obviously. debt now $37 trillion, with there four to five to seven trillion you can see will bite us. there is an attack on the national security. >> i have to ask i think democrats have been, still in that audit phase of what happened when you look at the results of the election and the loss among some of the fundamental longtime democratic coalitions with young voters, latino voters, black voters, working class voters. if you can try to avoid the canned answer of we need to meets voters where they are, what happened? >> i had not ever lived through a pressure election that will less to do with issues. i don't think getting rids of

tax on tips was something that drove the election but that may have been the only new idea from the candidate. i think the democrats' brand is bad and this was an election based on culture and their failure two contacts with a wide swath of americans is hugely problematic. every politician goes back it their own story. when i ran for governor i had a blue grass band, i didn't containing who i was but i said i appreciate the culture and i don't think until you have a cultural connection people will listen to you. >> do you think the rest of your party gets that, the majority of your party gets that? >> i think the majorities of the party realizes that the i had -- i had logical purity is a recipe for disaster and the attack on offense the top

woke-ism was a valid attack. the irony is and this sounds like a whining democrat but they do some stupid things in 2019 and that sticks forever. president trump can say virtually anything and it is forgotten within the same 24 hours so that is a -- >> is there something democrats can learn from president trump and how he does politics? >> be crazy all the time. >> i think crazy would look good on you. guest: but acknowledging the wokeism and notion we have to turn out more people. they did turn out more people and folks we thought would go back to democrats are not. until you make a cultural connection i don't know that people will listen an toes who

watch politico or do the normal means communication or traditional means is less than 5%. >> trump of brilliant, he was so ahead of his team on sorting that out with a huge reinforcing network of supporters, of followers. that is extraordinary and the democrats have a lot to learn in that. >> tha >> this morning, lawyers and child safety experts focus on ways to strengthen safety protections online for children. watch the senate judiciary committee program live at 10:00 eastern on c-span three. on c-span now, our free video app, or online at c-span.org.

♪ >> democracy is always an unfinished creation. >> democracy is worth dying for. >> democracy belongs to us all. >> we are here in the sanctuary of democracy. >> great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. >> american democracy is bigger than any one person. >> freedom and democracy must constantly be protected. >> we are still, at our core, a democracy. >> this is also a massive victory for democracy and freedom. >> mariya omelicheva is a strategy professor here it she discusses the geopolitics of global humanitarian aid, focusing on aid from the u.s., china, and russia.