Warner Expresses Concern About Whistleblower Safety After Trump Tweets

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 17: Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations on June 17, 2019 in Washington, DC. Warner participated in a discussio... WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 17: Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations on June 17, 2019 in Washington, DC. Warner participated in a discussion on China's strategy to control technologies of the future, including artificial intelligence and 5G. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Following a tumultuous weekend of tweets and right-wing media reports on the identity of the anonymous whistleblower, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) expressed grave concern about the safety of the individual who came forward with complaints about President Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president.

“This program has allowed folks to come forward in a protected way when they’ve seen abuse. And this president’s failure to honor that, to recognize that the whistleblower deserves protections and what the chilling effect it would have on our whole intelligence community, which more than any other area, needs to have the ability to not be politicized, to speak truth to power and if they say something, if they see something,” Warner said.

When asked if he’s concerned about the whistleblower’s safety, Warner didn’t mince words: “Any rational person would be concerned about the whistleblower’s safety after the President’s comments, which led some press outlets on the right, who were actually offering a bounty on trying to reveal the whistleblower’s identity.”

Just this weekend, it was reported that the attorney for the whistleblower reached out to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire over fear for the client’s safety. Over the weekend, Trump tweeted demanding to know the identity of the whistleblower and threatened “Big Consequences!” for whoever gave him or her information about Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president, now the center of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. I very much hope that nothing happens to this whistleblower or anyone else standing up to Trump. Should someone get hurt or worse, Trump’s defenders will spin, spin, spin.

  2. Collins Spokesperson: Our Campaign of The Concerned is finally catching fire and spreading broadly across the bipartisan political landscape. Watch for the Senator’s new book “How To Seem Concerned Without Really Caring” in bargain bins everywhere just in time for the holiday season.
    (No slam against Warner. Just having a moment.)

  3. So LUMP now proudly proclaims that he is a violent traitor.

    It gets worser and worser.

  4. So Trump is using Twitter to threaten violence against an individual. I realize Twitter is a shitshow, but isn’t Trump in violation of Twitter’s Terms of Service? And if not, what does it take?

    If anything happens to the whistleblower, or anyone else Trump is threatening, Twitter should be held equally liable.

  5. Avatar for gajake gajake says:

    “Big Consequences!” Like, I don’t know, maybe impeachment?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

65 more replies

Participants

Avatar for discobot Avatar for xpurg8d Avatar for fgs Avatar for robaruba Avatar for mondfledermaus Avatar for becca656 Avatar for irasdad Avatar for hagarwood Avatar for jkrogman Avatar for darrtown Avatar for pshah Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for tena Avatar for daulphin Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for icarrion Avatar for polisong Avatar for read2much Avatar for maximus Avatar for seamus42 Avatar for jackofalltirades Avatar for juvenal Avatar for rucleare Avatar for emiliano4

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: