Senator Mark Warner of Virginia sat down with MS Now’s Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss his understanding of the reason behind Trump’s attack on Iran. Sen. Warner appeared visibly upset when talking about the six US soldiers who have lost their lives in the war.
Sen. Warner strongly criticized Trump for his nonchalant attitude toward the death of the US soldiers. The president had previously refused to stop the conflict and had asserted that casualties are bound to happen in a war. His comments have since been widely criticized by many, including MAGA activists like Megyn Kelly, who accused Trump of being Israel’s puppet.
Mark Warner stated, “There are now six American soldiers who have died, and Donald Trump and his folks have said there will be many more casualties, and I, you know, it’s heartbreaking to hear you lay it out this way, and the unfortunate thing is I can’t rebut what you’ve said. This was a war of choice.”
Mark Warner, Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Gang of Eight, says the intelligence showed no imminent threat to the United States from Iran.
“There was a threat to Israel.”
If those two things are treated as the same, he warns, we are entering… pic.twitter.com/JZ7px7NIEY
— Liz Webster (@LizWebsterSBF) March 3, 2026
As a Senator with access to special information, he confirmed that there was no impending threat from Iran and the war could easily be avoided. He accused the administration of putting “the troops in harm’s way.” He mentioned being heartbroken by the images of the families of US troops. Despite being a strong supporter of Israel, he believes both the US and Israel owe these victims some explanation.
“I’m on the intelligence committee. I’m part of the gang of eight. If there were any imminent threat to America, I would know about it. There was no imminent threat.”
He strongly condemned the Trump administration for not giving any consistent statement about why he chose to declare war on Iran. “We have now had four different answers from this administration about why Donald Trump chose to go to war. First, it was going to be about eradicating the nuclear activities, which he said had been obliterated seven months ago. Obviously not. Then it was through the ballistic missiles, which would ultimately pose a threat at some point to America and, as a strong supporter of Israel, would pose a threat to Israel. But not eminently.”
TOP DEMOCRAT SAYS ‘NO EVIDENCE’ IRAN POSED IMMINENT THREAT TO U.S.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview Saturday that he had seen no evidence that Iran posed a direct threat to the U.S.
After a classified briefing, he…
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) February 28, 2026
Mark Warner proceeded to say that the administration said the war was necessary to eliminate the Iranian Navy, which was never pointed out before. And lastly, Trump wanted to change the regime. Mark expressed his fear for the future of the common Iranian people and was disappointed that Congress failed to acquire the majority of votes to put a stop to Trump’s tyranny. He closed his speech by urging Republicans to stand up to Trump.
“If Donald Trump called the Iranian people to go to the streets and there are 100,000 Iranian protesters on the streets of Tehran and the IRGC, the Iranian military that is still left, kills 5,000, 10,000, or 15,000. What is our obligation? We have no answers. We had a chance today to draw a line in the sand for Congress to use its constitutional power. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a majority, and where we head from now is uncharted.”
