Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia drew new attention Thursday after questioning the Justice Department’s announcement regarding the arrest of the suspect in the January 6 pipe bomb case, only days after separate comments in which he suggested the military might “save us” from President Donald Trump.

Warner, the Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made both sets of remarks during media interviews conducted this week.

Earlier in the week, while discussing controversy surrounding a drug boat investigation, Warner said, “I think in many ways, the uniformed military may help save us from this president and his lame people like Hegseth.”

Warner did not clarify what he meant by the military “saving” the country or how such a scenario would occur.

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His comments prompted criticism due to implications involving military involvement in political disputes.

On Thursday, Warner appeared in another interview following the Department of Justice announcement that a suspect had been arrested nearly five years after the pipe bombs were placed outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021.

Warner said the arrest was “good news” but questioned the response from federal officials at the press event.

“But I got to tell you, it kind of makes me — looking at this crowd, doing a victory lap, when all the senior FBI officials across all key divisions have been fired for political purposes, when in some field offices, up to 45% of the FBI officers who were doing things like counter espionage and cyber have been assigned to do immigration cases,” Warner said.

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“It’s a little rich that they’re saying they [make] America safer. How much earlier could we have caught this guy if resources hadn’t been diverted?”

Warner’s comments prompted pushback from congressional Republicans, including Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who questioned why Warner did not account for the four-year period under Joe Biden’s administration.

The Biden-era investigation has been a point of contention, with critics arguing that other federal priorities were given precedence over longstanding criminal cases.

Questions about resource allocation during previous years were also echoed by federal officials involved in the current operation.

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During the DOJ press conference, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino discussed the work that led to the arrest and contrasted it with prior approaches to federal law enforcement.

“Folks, this is what it’s like when you work for a president who tells you to get the bad guys and to stop focusing on other extraneous things not related to law enforcement. This is what happens,” Bongino said.

Bongino also addressed how investigators developed the breakthrough.

“We had a great team. [...] It was not a new public tip this came from. This was our own internal work at the FBI.”

The pipe bomb case has remained unresolved since the discovery of the devices on January 5, 2021.

Federal agencies have continued to review surveillance records, witness leads and technological data to identify the suspect, leading to Thursday’s announcement of the arrest.

Warner’s remarks came as lawmakers continued evaluating the scope of the investigation and the federal resources assigned to it during different administrations.

The Justice Department has not commented on Warner’s claims regarding personnel allocation during prior years.

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