Two can be more persuasive than one.
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Mrs Clinton will be anointed as the party’s official presidential candidate along with Mr Kaine at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. But Clinton grew personally comfortable with the likable and even-keeled Kaine as they campaigned together in recent weeks and discussed the vice presidency. She said, Kaine is, “everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not”. Calling her the “opposite” of Trump, he said “Hillary Clinton doesn’t insult people, she listens to them”.
“I have said many times that the most important qualification when you are trying to make this really big choice is, ‘Can this person step in to be president?'” Clinton said of Kaine.
“One of his first cases [as a civil rights lawyer] was a pro bono case representing a woman who was denied an apartment because she was African American”, Ms Clinton said. A Monmouth University poll conducted in June found that just 9 percent of voters were more likely to back Clinton if she picked Kaine, while 13 percent were less inclined to do so. “Tim Kaine has been praising the Trans-Pacific Partnership and has been pushing hard to get it approved”. Kaine was dubbed a “job killer” in another broadside from The Donald.
Ultimately, it was Kaine that best fit that description. During the call, Clinton joked to her future running mate that Podesta was “outside hiding” and ready to brief him.
She told the group that when next week’s Democratic National Convention arrives they’ll be focused on, “building bridges, not walls”.
Clinton, relying on familiar slams of the GOP nominee, introduced Kaine at a rally at Florida International University a day after officially offering the senator the opportunity to continue his ascent up the Democratic political ladder, possibly into the White House.
At the time Obama was the underdog to Hillary Clinton and Kaine was the first sitting governor to endorse his campaign. She called Kaine to tell him about 40 minutes before the announcement, and called President Barack Obama shortly after Kaine.
Notably, a campaign aide said Kaine made clear “in the course of discussions” that he shares Clinton’s opposition to TPP in its current form.
Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, who led the search, offered her advice. “He’s not afraid to take on special interests”, Clinton said. Time Kaine, D-Va., as her running mate.
“Hey, guys, thank you!”
“Tim is a lifelong fighter for progressive causes and one of the most qualified vice presidential candidates in our nation’s history”, Clinton said in her letter.
Kaine is a fluent Spanish speaker with a reputation for working with Republicans.
They have three grown-up children called Nat, Woody and Annella.
“Trash-talks Mexican-Americans and Latinos”, Kaine said. “Thanks for choosing us!”
Citing Mr. Trump’s record as a casino owner in Atlantic City, N.J., Mr. Kaine said: “He leaves a trail of broken promises and wrecked lives wherever he goes”.
This country, he enthused, is the envy of the world. The senator choked up with emotion while describing his experiences as governor in 2007 when 32 people died and 17 were wounded during a grisly mass shooting at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
Trump weighed in on Twitter following the rally, saying the Democratic ticket didn’t “look presidential” to him. Again in Spanish, he asked how many Hondurans were in the audience, and he smiled approvingly when he heard their cheers.
In addition to his fluency on national security issues – shaping up as key in the 2016 race – his strong Spanish is seen as a major asset in cementing Clinton’s heavy lead with Hispanic voters.
The Trump campaign attacked the choice, dubbing the senator “Corrupt Kaine”.
His wife, Anne Holton, is the daughter of a former Virginia governor and is herself a former state judge and the state’s education secretary. “When I say he’s a progressive who likes to get things done, I mean it”.
“I want someone who can become president immediately”, Clinton said recently on CNN.
A cache of leaked emails from Democratic party leaders’ accounts includes at least two messages suggesting an insider effort to hobble Bernie Sanders’ upstart campaign – including by seeking to present him as an atheist to undermine him in highly-religious states.
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He also vouched for Clinton’s trustworthiness, a major liability with voters, telling the crowd, “She has always delivered”.
