It's "chilling" that Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to look toward the use of nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine, but also an indication that Russia is losing the war on "every front," Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner tells Newsmax.
"They're losing militarily and they're losing in the court of public opinion, the Virginia Democrat commented Wednesday on Newsmax's "The Record with Greta Van Susteren." "They are losing in the court of world opinion. Even countries like India and Kazakhstan, somewhat reliable allies in the past, have been moving away from Putin."
Warner wouldn't comment directly on reports that Russian military leaders have discussed the use of nuclear weapons, but he said he hopes Putin's talk is "only rhetoric."
"The consequences would be dire for him and the region should he ever do the unthinkable," he said.
Warner also would not comment on who could be behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, telling Van Susteren, who asked why such intelligence would be kept a secret, that there is "a great deal of speculation" on the matter.
"Obviously the damage was great and the flow of energy to Europe has been curtailed, but I think it's again just not something I want to comment on," said Warner. "This event occurred a couple of weeks ago.
"It is interesting that, at least here in the United States, it's disappeared from the front page. Obviously, it's not disappeared in Europe because this is a critical energy source."
Further, he said, if one is looking for a silver lining in the matter, then it's that Europe is now looking for different sources of energy, including from Africa.
"I'm a strong believer that we need to be pumping more American natural gas, and we need to be getting more of that to our European friends," said Warner. "This is one of the areas where I agree with my friend [Sen.] Joe Manchin [D-W.Va.]. We desperately need permitting reform in this country so it doesn't take five years from an idea before you can get a shovel in the ground."
He noted that for more than two years, work has been going on to get the nation's largest offshore wind facility built off the coast of Virginia.
"It will have clean energy and American jobs, but the permitting process has been a bit of a nightmare," he said.
Also during the interview, Warner commented on the Chinese docking their third space module, saying that he doesn't think there is reason to be concerned about it, but he thinks it's important to note that China and its hold on technology is the long-term challenge for the United States and other democracies.
"I used to be in the wireless communications business, and the fact that for a while China took the whole lead with Huawei and 5G competition, that is a national security issue," said Warner. "I think we are responding. We now have an alternative to Huawei, and we now have made a $52 billion investment in trying to bring jobs back to this country in semiconductors."
China, he added, uses its technology to create a surveillance state that monitors not only its own people, but others worldwide.
"If my kids were of an age where I could still have a say over them, I'd be very careful about their usage of TikTok because a lot of information is being sucked out of Americans and ends up in a data repository in China," he warned.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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