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The next is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Jan. 11, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Richmond, Virginia, the place we discover Senator Tim Kaine, who has oversight in overseas relations and different key committees. Senator, we all know the president has been briefed on navy choices, however our reporting is not any determination made, no navy property put in place to execute something but. There aren’t even any plane carriers within the Mideast area at this second in time, would you help navy motion?
SENATOR TIM KAINE: Margaret, U.S. navy motion in Iran can be a large mistake. It might have the impact of giving the Iranian regime the power to say it is the U.S. that is screwing our nation up. Proper now, Iranians are blaming, appropriately, the regime for screwing up the nation. This Iranian regime has spent years focusing exterior its borders on fomenting terrorism and aggression in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza, as a substitute of listening to the wants of its personal residents, and very similar to Syrian residents, lastly threw off the yoke of Bashar al-Assad and that brutal regime with out U.S. navy intervention, it appears to be like to be that Iran is doing the identical. So let’s have a good time their freedom loving spirit. Let’s sustain the sanctions stress, which helped in Syria and helps, I believe, dramatize the- the misdeeds of this regime. However U.S. navy motion would simply convey again the painful historical past of the U.S. toppling the Iranian prime minister again within the Nineteen Fifties and would give the regime the power guilty their very own failures on the US.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You talked about Syria there. There was some, you already know, covert U.S. help. There was one thing at first, at the very least with that sort of rebellion, would you help any sort of assist? I imply, the president saying we will assist the protesters. What does that imply? Or what ought to it appear like?
SEN. KAINE: Properly, I believe once more, let’s use sanctions. In Syria, the Caesar sanctions that we put in place in 2019 to punish Bashar al-Assad for battle crimes had an actual impact on the Syrian vitality, building and different sectors. And when Syria selected to go a brand new path, President Trump, with the help of a bipartisan Congress, has diminished these sanctions to open up a brand new chapter in life for Syria. That is the fitting reply, however navy motion, we didn’t take navy motion towards Bashar al-Assad. Now we have been engaged militarily in Syria to combat ISIS, as a result of ISIS was a part of al-Qaeda, there is a Navy Authorization for Use of U.S. Power towards ISIS. We have labored with different nations to cut back them, however we did not use navy motion towards Bashar al-Assad. And we should not use navy motion towards the Iranian authorities in this- on this protest second, let’s help these courageous freedom fighters in different methods, by means of sanctions, however not use our little children within the navy to take action.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Simply in a short time, once you talked about there was authorization for pressure in Syria and ISIS, I assume which means you help the navy strikes that happened yesterday towards 35 targets in Syria. This was in response to the killing of these two U.S. troopers and an American interpreter. That is legitimate, in your view?
SEN. KAINE: Yeah, yeah, it’s legally legitimate that it has lengthy been held that the 2001 congressional authorization towards al-Qaeda contains the power to go towards teams which have come out of or have affiliated with al-Qaeda that imply hurt to the U.S. troops. And on this occasion, ISIS continues to be a menace to U.S. troops. There’s a authorized authorization for the U.S. of pressure, which is what makes this so totally different than the usage of the navy pressure towards Venezuela or Greenland or Cuba or wherever the president desires to take us to battle subsequent.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Properly, you are taking me to the following subject, which is that this effort you led. You bought about 5 Republican senators to hitch your effort on this procedural vote to limit the president’s actions, he would require new congressional approval earlier than new navy motion in Venezuela. Do you assume the Republicans who have been with you on this vote will stick with you, on condition that the president has brazenly threatened them?
SEN. KAINE: Margaret, I believe they may, and I believe extra could be part of. The 5 republicans who voted with me, let’s be clear what they have been voting for. The Trump administration has waged battle, first towards Venezuelan boats in worldwide waters, then covert motion in Venezuela, and now an assault on Venezuela to depose its management, to ascertain a brand new authorities that we selected, not that the Venezuelan folks selected, to grab Venezuela’s financial system and even say we will set the phrases of financial and political transition for the following few years. What my Republican colleagues voted for is, let’s get this out of the labeled and put it earlier than the American public and truly debate this use of the U.S. navy on the ground of the US Senate. 4 months into it, tons of of Venezuelans lifeless, American troops injured, let’s lastly debate this publicly. That is all they voted for, and the truth that the president goes towards them only for eager to have this debate earlier than the general public, exhibits how nervous the president is about each his authorized authority, but additionally the knowledge of what he is doing.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, he mentioned publicly they shouldn’t be re-elected as a result of they- they issued this, this name for congressional overview. You introduced up Greenland. That is the- the territory that Denmark has broad governance over, Denmark being a NATO ally. World leaders take President Trump’s remarks severely. We take him severely and actually. And to that time, Denmark’s Prime Minister publicly warned that it could imply the tip of the NATO alliance if he carries out what he mentioned. Which as lately as Friday, he mentioned, I need to make a deal for Greenland the straightforward approach, but when we do not do it the straightforward approach, we’re going to do it the laborious approach. Is there something to cease the president from doing it quote, unquote, “the laborious approach,” which seems like navy pressure?
SEN. KAINE: Margaret, I believe Congress will cease them, each Democrats and Republicans. This is able to be disastrous. It would not simply be “America First.” It would not simply be the tip of NATO, it could be America alone. If we take our greatest allies, and Denmark has been an ally for a really very long time, and we resolve that we’ve got the navy capability to grab territory for them, you will notice the US, as a substitute of being the world’s chief diplomat and a pacesetter on the earth, you will see the US remoted as a pariah. And I’ve talked to my Republican colleagues, they- they watch what the president has carried out is Venezue- in Venezuela. They hear the threats towards different nations. I can let you know this, we’ll pressure a vote within the Senate about no U.S. navy motion in Greenland or Denmark. If we have to, we’ll get overwhelming bipartisan help that this president is silly to even counsel this. We’re not going to do it the laborious approach, and we’re not going to do it the straightforward approach, both we will proceed to work with Denmark as a sovereign nation that we’re allied with, and we’re not going to deal with them as an adversary or as an enemy.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We are going to look ahead to motion in Congress on that entrance. Senator Kaine, thanks on your time right this moment. We’ll be proper again.
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