Virginia’s two Democratic Senators voted differently on President Donald Trump’s nominee for the top seat at the National Security Agency. The split is highlighted as incumbent Senator Mark Warner heads into a reelection campaign this fall, and support for any Trump appointee could set off some Virginia voters.
Gen. Joshua Rudd was confirmed as director of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency last week, with Virginia’s two Senators voting differently on his nomination.
“I had a good meeting in my office with the General in my office and I felt he was a good leader but without cyber experience,” Kaine told the press.
That’s Senator Tim Kaine who said he was impressed by Rudd’s background but said he lacked a specialization to meet the agency’s high-tech needs.
For Senator Mark Warner, it was about Rudd’s perceived allegiance to the country, not to Trump.
“This is where I made a gut decision, based upon his record, would not do inappropriate things even if someone in the White House asked him to do that," Warner said Thursday. "And I hate to use that as the criteria, but it's the criteria we have to ask.”
Warner pointed to recent appointments he and Kaine agreed to for U.S. Attorney positions in Virginia’s federal courts. Both have since been fired or left the office for undisclosed reasons. For Warner, the same standard applied to Rudd.
“I believe General Rudd would get fired rather than do something inappropriate,” the senator said.
Support for Trump nominees may dog some candidates this fall, but University of Mary Washington political science professor Stephen Farnsworth said Warner’s vote aligns with the incumbent’s long-running centrist-bonafides.
‘The decision to vote for a Trump nominee may help persuade some centrist supporters to back Warner in November,” Farnsworth told Radio IQ.
