Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) laughed at CNBC’s Joe Kernen going back to the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan during a debate on leaked attack plans from the current administration.
Warner joined CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday to discuss The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg releasing texts from a Signal group chat involving administration officials that he was accidentally invited too. Timing and details of a then-upcoming attack on Houthis in Yemen was being discussed in the chat, which included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and others. The White House continues to insist that no classified information was shared in the chat.
While discussing the scandal, Kernen argued that President Joe Biden’s administration kicked things off with the “biggest f-up in history” with the withdrawal from Afghanistan, in which 13 service members died.
“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,” Kernen told Warner.
The senator laughed at Kernen bringing up Biden during a discussion on President Donald Trump’s administration. Warner joked he was surprised Kernen wasn’t name-dropping Hillary Clinton and her controversies too.
“Should we go back to even to—” the senator began as Kernen shot back.
“That’s only four years [ago], senator!” he said.
“I’m surprised… you’re not going to just throw in the Hillary servers?” Warner asked.
“She wiped that clean with a cloth, remember?” Kernen responded.
“At least acknowledge, acknowledge this was a screw up,” Warner said, to which Kernen agreed.
The senator argued if lower level national security officials had made the “screw up” of inviting a journalist into a group chat where an attack was being discussed, “their butts would be fired.”
“If the Houthis, 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.”
Watch above via CNBC.
The post Democrat Mark Warner Laughs At CNBC’s Joe Kernen Deflecting To Biden In Signalgate Clash: ‘Acknowledge This Was a Screw Up’ first appeared on Mediaite.
