Tim Kaine to be her running mate, turning to a steady and seasoned hand in government to fill out the Democratic ticket, she announced Friday.
Advertisement
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton formally introduced her vice presidential pick today.
The two were to rally supporters in Miami on Saturday afternoon.
Minutes later, Kaine tweeted: “Just got off the phone with Hillary”. She could be right, of course, though the very fact that Trump is the GOP’s candidate indicates that times may have changed along with the factors that sway the electorate.
Trump, she warned on Saturday, “is not only wrong, he’s dangerously wrong”. “Tim Kaine is everything that Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not”, she continued.
Clinton is hoping to seize the spotlight from Republicans after their convention in Cleveland.
Kaine’s first appearance with Clinton will be on Saturday at an event in Miami, a campaign aide said.
As Podesta waited, he and Clinton started making calls.
The two candidates have staffers who know them both well.
Nationwide polls suggest Clinton is running nearly neck and neck with Trump, who painted a dark picture of an America mired in poverty and violence as he accepted his party’s nomination Thursday, promising to restore law and order, clamp down on immigration and put America first.
Near the end of his speech, Kaine quoted the Missourian who rose to become president of the United States, Harry S Truman, “America was not built on fear”.
Not everyone is happy about Clinton’s choice of a center-left running mate, which runs the risk of alienating Sanders supporters on the party’s far left. “And he will make a great vice president”.
As a popular politician from the battleground state of Virginia, Kaine could help Clinton secure a key state in the general election.
Trump’s campaign seized upon Kaine’s Washington experience in a fundraising text message to supporters, writing: “The ultimate insiders – Obama, Hillary and Kaine”.
The campaign later issued a lengthy statement, labeling the Virginia Democrat “corrupt Kaine”.
Liberal groups, which had pressured Clinton not to pick Kaine because of his support for fast-track authority for the White House to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, were dismayed by the choice.
Her introduction of Kaine was in stark contrast to Trump’s first event with Pence last weekend. He also had a particularly powerful backer in Obama, whom Kaine endorsed in 2007.
Kaine lost no time in showing off his fluent Spanish at a campus dominated by Hispanic students and faculty.
As a validator, defender, kindred spirit and attack dog, Kaine wove deftly between humor and dire warnings about the Republican ticket, impressing the crowd and leaving Clinton looking genuinely happy and relaxed.
“Estamos listos para Hillary”, he declared.
Clinton and Kaine met that evening at her Washington home for 90 minutes, and she invited Kaine and his wife, Virginia Education Secretary Anne Holton, to her home in Chappaqua two days later. Cory Booker and Massachusetts Sen. I’m honored to be her running mate.
With almost three years of experience in the Senate under his belt, Kaine has beefed up his foreign policy credentials.
His bipartisan roots, the Clinton campaign believes, could resonate with voters seeking an alternative to Trump.
And a former Virginia governor as well. Kaine snuck into an office space that was covered in ropes and boating equipment, locking the doors to keep out dock workers who were trying to get in.
His governorship was a study in practical decision-making and political maneuvering – qualities valued by the Clinton organization. Virginia’s Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, a close Clinton friend and ally, will name a replacement for Kaine if he and Clinton win the White House. “But I took an oath of office to uphold it. Following an oath of office is also a moral obligation”. Barack Obama in his 2008 presidential bid. He called it the worst day of his life and promised to take on the National Rifle Association and fight for “common sense” gun control. By comparison, until the Sandy Hook Massacre of 2012, his counterpart Warner had an “A” rating from the NRA.
Advertisement
During the call, Clinton joked to her future running mate that Podesta was “outside hiding” and ready to brief him. The state twice voted for Obama after a generation of solidly voting for Republicans in presidential elections.
