Clinton told him there was a plane waiting at the airport and that campaign chairman John Podesta and a team from the Brooklyn headquarters was sitting in a vehicle parked nearby.
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(Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP).
Hillary Clinton introduced her running mate, Virginia Sen.
“Please join me in welcoming the next vice president my friend senator, Tim Kaine”, said Hillary Clinton at Saturday’s rally. Kaine’s ability to speak Spanish could prove essential to Clinton’s Hispanic outreach efforts and broaden her lead over Trump. “When I say he’s a progressive who likes to get things done, I mean it”, she said.
And a former Virginia governor as well.
“I’m trying to get to know more about him”, said Karen Iglesias, a health educator from West Kendall who is of Bolivian descent. “He will fight tooth and nail for American families, and he’ll be a dogged fighter in our campaign”, Clinton said in a letter to supporters Friday night. “We’re going to be “compañeros de alma, ‘ in this great ‘lucha” ahead”, he said, or “soul mates in this great fight ahead”.
The rally at Florida International University marked the pair’s first joint campaign appearance. The two only briefly posed for photos at their campaign kickoff.
Kaine endorsed Clinton in 2014 before she even announced she was running for President, but they have’t always seen eye-to-eye.
“America was not built on fear”. He learned Spanish during a mission trip to Honduras while in law school. She also described Kaine as a fighter.
“Make no mistake, behind that smile, Tim also has a backbone of steel”, Clinton said.
Mr Kaine became emotional when he recalled the 2007 shooting deaths of 32 people at Virginia Tech University during his stint as governor, calling it the worst day of his life. The pick also comes as leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee show there were discussions among top party officials about how to attack the Vermont senator, a development sure to anger his followers whom Clinton is now counting on. Then sitting behind her, he grinned ear-to-ear as she introduced him. His selection completes the line-up for the general election, in which Clinton and Kaine will face off against Trump and Pence.
Clinton also went on the attack.
Holton, who wiped away tears during the speech, is the state’s education secretary and a former state judge. The couple has three children.
During Saturday’s rally, Kaine referred to gun violence as a topic that’s “very close (to) my heart”. The couple planned to attend 9 a.m. Showing off his foreign policy knowledge as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Kaine criticizes Trump for saying that he would leave America’s allies to deal with Vladimir Putin’s Russian Federation on their own.
Trump began firing off critical tweets about the newly minted Democratic duo in advance of their afternoon appearance.
HARI SREENIVASAN: This wasn’t someone that Bernie Sanders’ folks had supported, let’s say, before or after this speech.
Clinton opposed the TPP during the primary against Sanders, citing concerns about job protections and national security.
“Throughout his political career, Senator Kaine has been a supporter of free trade and other issues critical to the technology sector”, Shapiro said. The decision was immediately greeted as a sign that Mrs Clinton was looking beyond the election and a running mate to excite the base.
We have covered Tim Kaine’s rise from Richmond Mayor to U.S. Senator for over 15 years. He’s never run after big money.
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Lerer reported from Washington.
