Spy games and loyalty tests with Senator Mark Warner

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) in his office with the GZERO World Podcast logo superimposed on top.


It’s been a banner stretch for President Trump: a major strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, a sprawling tax-and-spending bill pushed through Congress, and a growing foreign policy resume. But beneath the surface of all the flag-waving and victory laps, Democrats like Senator Mark Warner are warning that the real story is unfolding in the shadows—inside an increasingly politicized US intelligence community.

In this episode of the GZERO World podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with the senior Senator from Virginia at his Capitol Hill office for a wide-ranging conversation about what’s breaking inside America’s national security institutions—and what that means for foreign policy decisions from Tehran to Gaza. Warner doesn’t hold back: “We’re in uncharted, dangerous territory. [Intelligence] Analysts are being told to change their conclusions—or lose their jobs.”

The two also dive into the fallout from the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, the fragile push for a Gaza ceasefire, and why Warner sees a largely ignored civil war in Sudan as one of the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crises—and a rare opportunity for the US to lead.

Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published

More from GZERO Media

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer departs 10 Downing Street for the House of Commons to attend the Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) in London, United Kingdom on June 11, 2025.
(Photo by WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto)

The big political news out of Europe this week was that right-wing populist parties are now, for the first time, leading the polls in Europe’s three largest economies.

Graph showing the rise of the missing persons in Mexico from 2000-2024.
Eileen Zhang

Last Saturday, thousands of Mexicans marked the International Day of the Disappeared by taking to the streets of the country’s major cities, imploring the government to do more to find an estimated 130,000 missing persons

Jeff Frampton

Seven warships, a nuclear submarine, over two thousand Marines, and several spy planes. Over the past week, the United States has stacked a serious military footprint off Venezuela’s coast.