call america needed? senator mark warner, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much. is there an attitude in this city, washington, dc, that you politicians are now prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure ukraine s victory in the war with vladimir putin? well, my sense, stephen, is that this is not only an attitude that s reflected by politicians, by the american public, quite honestly, i think it is the british government, the british public. what has taken place over the last few months is, you know, the west, nato have come back together, an organisation that candidly a year ago at the end of the trump presidency was totally broken. i think a lot of that was due to the fact that the american intelligence community, along with the british had been very forward leaning up to the beginning of the conflict about vladimir putin s intentions and made the case that he was going to not only invade ukraine, but invade in a massive way, as he has. i remember as recently as ten days
including myself up that this is on the horizon. justice thomas is is a shot across the bow that makes clear that abortion is not the endgame here. it is really only the beginning. he says in that concurrence sacked, although the court has tried to question we and contraception. the court should in time go further to take up these other rights, which like the right to abortion, he says, is not constitutional tax and not deeply rooted in this country s tradition and for that reason, is egregiously erroneous and should be overruled. so, more to come this is not the end. yeah, let me just read that portion. for that reason, in future cases, we should we consider all of this courts substance due process presidents. of course it s a line of cases that roe is part of, including griswold, birth control. lawrence which is throwing out a law criminalizing gay sex in texas and obergefell of course
and make no mistake, this court, particularly the logic of the decision dobbs is coming for more than just reproductive rights, whatever they say to the country. civil rights for gay couples, protections for trans folks, contraceptive rights, voting rights, they re all under threat. and i think it is time, well, actually, past time, we see the trump court for what it is. an acute that to our fundamental rights, including the constitution of american democracy itself. that said, the answer is not hopelessness and despair and nihilism. because it is also the case that throughout that same history, many of the courts most infamous decisions, one that live in infamy, and he scorn for ever more about the people who wrote them, ultimately have been undone by popular movements of opposition. it exists in a democratic
because what starts around the very challenging question around abortion can morph to contraceptive rights, can morph to gay rights, marriage equality rights. and i don t think americans. is this the territory on which the democrats are going to run and fight the midterm elections of 2022? you want to take the republicans on in a culture war? one of the things that about, at least politics in this country, is it s hard to predict umpteen months out. but the fact that this has been forced onto the political centre stage by this extraordinary potential decision. and it s not final yet, so your viewers know there could be some change. i understand that, but if. if this much of retreating of rights. one of the things about this country, whether it goes left or right, it generally has not taken rights away. i understand. and that s what at stake at this point. but what i m trying to get to is the words of house democrat sean patrick maloney, who said just the other day abortion is going to