Politics tamfitronics
Skip to main contentSkip to footer
At a Monitor Breakfast, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner weighed in on AI, China, and border security. Then I asked the Virginia Democrat if he’d run for reelection.
|
Troy Sambajon/The Christian Science Monitor
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner spoke to reporters at a Monitor Breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington on June 18, 2024.
|Washington
Late in our Monitor Breakfast on June 18 with Sen. Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I couldn’t resist asking: Will you run for reelection in 2026?
“Sorry!” I added with a chuckle, hoping to convey to the Virginia Democrat that I knew my question seemed off-topic. We had just spent most of the hour discussing the weightiest of issues – election interference, artificial intelligence, border security, TikTok, China, Russia, Israel.
But I asked Senator Warner about his plans for a reason. There’s been talk that Virginia’s fairly popular Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, might challenge him in 2026. Suddenly, too, Virginia is looking competitive in the presidential race. If the Old Dominion is edging rightward, that could affect Mr. Warner’s prospects – and suggest larger forces at play in American politics.
Predictably, the senator didn’t answer my question. But he immediately pivoted into campaign mode, touting the expertise he has built up serving on and then leading this key committee. And he alluded to his past as a successful entrepreneur in telecommunications. It’s obvious technology doesn’t scare him.
“I feel I’m adding value in this job,” Mr. Warner said, appearing at his fourth Monitor Breakfast. He’s also proud of his work with Republicans, calling his panel the Senate’s “last fully functioning bipartisan committee.”
The Virginia Democrat clearly approaches his role, and the access to classified information it entails, with the seriousness it deserves. At our breakfast, when asked about a sensitive intelligence matter, he would often pause, look up, and quietly ask himself a version of, “OK, what can I say here?”
Mr. Warner did have plenty to say.My article focused on the riskthat artificial intelligence and disinformation could turn the November election into “the Wild, Wild West.”Reuters went with the senator’s pointthat the United States needs to “up our game” on tracking Chinese technology. The Washington Timescovered Mr. Warner’s comments on a potential TikTok ban.
Watch the moment I asked Mr. Warner for his thoughts on reelection at 1:00:20 on our YouTube.
You’ve readoffree articles.Subscribe to continue.
Politics tamfitronics Help fund Monitor journalism for $11/ month
Already a subscriber? Login
Mark Sappenfield
Editor
Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations.
Our work isn’t possible without your support.
Politics tamfitronics Unlimited digital access $11/month.
Already a subscriber? Login
Digital subscription includes:
- Unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.
- CSMonitor.com archive.
- The Monitor Daily email.
- No advertising.
- Cancel anytime.
Give us your feedback
Thank you for contacting The Christian Science Monitor.
Dear Reader,
About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:
“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”
If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.
But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.
The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.
We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”
If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/monitor_breakfast/2024/0624/Even-for-Senate-Intelligence-Committee-chair-all-politics-is-local
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe
