CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Mark Warner

Interview

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TAPPER: Yes, and we should note, it's not just that there isn't a

strong case in Pennsylvania. There isn't a strong case in Wisconsin. There isn't a strong case in Michigan. There isn't a strong case in Georgia.

In fact, I think the number of lawsuits that the Trump team and their allies have lost at this point is 24. It's all just a delay of the inevitable.

Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much.

Joining me now is Democratic Senator Mark Warner of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He's the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Senator, I want to start with the firing of Chris Krebs, who was the head of election cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security. I know that you must have worked with him, being the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

What was your reaction when you heard the news?

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Well, first of all, Jake, let's flash back to about 45 days ago, when, 30 days before the election, we lived in great concern of foreign intervention, we lived in great concern and, from Chris, from the intel community, from the law enforcement community, people potentially showing up with long guns on elections.

We lived in concern of violence right before or right after the election. And, instead, the American people really responded. We had a record turnout, record turnout for Joe Biden, record turnout for Donald Trump. Foreign intervention, for the most part, did not take place.

Literally, hundreds of thousands of election officials carried out their job. I mean, this should be a moment, in the aftermath, where we're celebrating the strength of our democracy. And, in many ways, Chris Krebs was one of the major guys to make that happen.

And he was uniformly well-regarded, at least from the Intelligence Committee standpoint, bipartisan, for keeping our elections safe and secure. And I think he did what he was paid to do. And he did it very well.

And to be treated this way for doing his job, and not falling in line as a political henchman, to have lost his job is one more indication, as you go through the litany at the beginning of your program, lie after lie after lie coming out of this White House.

At some point, we have got to -- I hope my Republican colleagues, and some of them privately, but more of them publicly, need to reach a breaking point and say, this is undermining the whole sense of rule of law.

And Chris Krebs did a great job. Our elections were the most secure in our history. The American people did a great job. Our election officials did a great job.

TAPPER: Yes.

WARNER: The only person that's not doing a great job is Donald Trump.

TAPPER: Yes, I think it's the best turnout among the American electorate in a century or something like that.

So, Senator, while some Republicans came out against Krebs' firing, there are others, like Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, who say it's President Trump's right to fire Krebs. We heard the same from Senator Ted Cruz.

Obviously, everyone in the administration serves at the president -- president's prerogative, but I don't know if that's the point, though. What's your response to that argument?

WARNER: Well, my response is, if we're seeing this president, who's now a lame duck, try to dismantle our nation's security, whether it be firing the defense secretary, whether it be firing Chris Krebs, who kept our elections safe -- there's lots of speculation about the CIA director and FBI director.

How many actions will this president take that will undermine our country's security before people -- even if my Senate colleagues won't stand up, when good people of goodwill of both political parties and across the country?

I do not believe what Donald Trump is doing is a reflection of what the Republican Party is. I do believe there are Republican Party enablers, but I think there's lots of local and statewide elected Republicans who are aghast at this as well.

[16:10:11]

I think the secretary of state in Georgia has stood up and done his job, and gotten abuse for it as well. And I just -- I worry, going into this period with Congress leaving town, whether other senior security officials' careers are at stake as well.

One thing that hasn't gotten much attention -- I see this from the intelligence standpoint -- when the president arbitrarily decided to cut back on the troop -- number of troops in Afghanistan...

TAPPER: Right.

WARNER: ... without warning to our Afghan partners, without warning to the 30 countries who are -- had been our partners in Afghanistan, regardless of what you feel about that war, he is again undermining the security of our country.

TAPPER: So...

WARNER: And -- go ahead.

TAPPER: CNN is learning that some staffers at the Department of Health and Human Services have been told that, if anybody from the Biden/Harris transition team reaches out to them, they shouldn't talk to them, and they should report them to senior management.

I mean, I wonder what you think about this, given the fact that the pandemic is entering an incredibly dangerous stage right now. And the Trump/Harris -- I mean, the Biden/Harris team needs to start transitioning and taking over?

WARNER: Well, I think it's remarkable.

And I give credit to president-elect Biden for holding his temper, keeping -- keeping the emotions down. Actually, what he said, I believe yesterday, is the facts. By delaying this information, more people will get sick, more people will die.

The fact that the president-elect is not getting the presidential daily intelligence briefs is making our country less secure. And we should not be going into the Thanksgiving holiday without Biden's team getting not only the coronavirus briefs, but also the daily intelligence briefs.

The transition teams ought to be able to go to the agencies and start making the peaceful transition of power.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: You like to work in a bipartisan way. The new chair, I guess, I don't know if he's acting chair or he's taken over officially, but Marco Rubio, senator from Florida.

I mean, very few Republicans in the Senate have even acknowledged that Joe Biden is president-elect. What do Republicans say to you privately when you say, the transition process needs to begin, at the very least for the health and well-being of the American people, which is more important than President Trump's brittle spirit?

What do they say to you?

WARNER: Well, the notion of the first -- after -- the election took a couple days to call, but after that first few days, when people said, well give Trump a few days, and let his ego work through this.

Well, I think there was a lot of folks who didn't like that, but said, for the greater sense of transition and security of our country and not trying to have more disruption, folks kind of gave that time period.

But we're now 15 days after the election. And I am extraordinarily discouraged by how few of my Republican colleagues who are willing to call out this totally inappropriate behavior.

And just again, this is not about Democratic, Republican. This is about the security of our people in terms of coronavirus, and it's about the security of our country. In many ways, what Vladimir Putin most wanted was chaos in our nation. One of the reasons why maybe Russia didn't try to disinform as much -- or misinformation as much this cycle as they did in 2016 was because the source of -- the greatest source of misinformation and disinformation about our elections didn't have to originate in Moscow.

It originates at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

TAPPER: Yes.

Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

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