While Clinton also considered other potential running mates, including Labor Secretary Tom Perez, New Jersey Sen. The campaign began challenging Kaine by blasting out opposition research on Saturday and will continue to knock Kaine’s record on job creation, taxes and the size of government, the adviser said.
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On the criticism that Kaine is a white, male and ashe himself has put it, “boring”, Goldfeld responded: “I’ll take boring and knowledgeable – I’ll take a decent human being over someone like Donald Trump”. He declared “I strongly support” Virginia’s anti-union “right-to-work” law and denigrated critics of corporate-friendly trade deals as having a ‘loser’s mentality.’ He criticized Democrats in 2011 for seeking a higher tax rate on millionaires.
Clinton introduced Kaine as someone who has shown a “lifelong commitment to social justice”.
“Sen. Tim Kaine is everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not”, Clinton said, speaking to the gathered crowd. The two posed only briefly for photos at their campaign kickoff.
Kaine had previously helped campaign with Clinton during the primaries, appearing at countless rallies.
She also pointed to his work on gun control after the deadly Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, praising his efforts to curb gun violence before a nation still reeling from a series of shootings and violence against police. Kaine asked in Annandale, Virginia, as Clinton nodded. Choking up, he said that day was the “worst day of my life”.
While Sanders and his most prominent supporters have emphatically rejected the possibility of his supporters moving to Trump’s campaign, Clinton’s pick has drawn a mixed response from progressive groups anxious the Kaine pick could allow Trump to “outflank” Clinton on trade.
As he looked on from a stool behind Clinton, Kaine lived up to his reputation of “Mr. Nice Guy”, grinning and waving to the crowd, and clearly reveling in the moment.
He pointed out that his father-in-law was a Republican governor of Virginia who had integrated the public schools.
Holton, who wiped away tears during the speech, is the state’s education secretary and a former state judge. The couple has three adult children, including a son, Nat, a Marine who is going on a deployment on Monday, aides said. And tonight, he’s back home in Richmond.
The key to getting minority voters on board, he said, is playing to Kaine’s strengths as a former civil rights leader, mayor of a black city and his ability to speak Spanish.
Karen Bernal, an elected co-representative of the California Bernie delegation, said, “Who knew Secretary Clinton didn’t need the millions of Sanders supporters, especially in the all-important swing states?” “In the U.S. Senate since 2013, he has consistently ranked as one of the least progressive Democrats and was one of only a dozen Democrats who supported Trans-Pacific Partnership Fast Track previous year”.
Kristol’s tweet also refers to Clinton’s role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans – and while Kaine has attacked the Obama administration on Syria, he has taken no concrete action on the issue.
“Bernie supporters are outraged”, Trump tweeted. “Bernie fought for nothing!”
He alleged that “Kaine is, and always has been, owned’ by the banks”.
The Clinton campaign declined to respond to a request for comment on the Trump campaign’s allegations about Kaine.
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“The selection increases the burden on Hillary Clinton to pressure the White House to take TPP off the table in a lame-duck Congress”, said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Isn’t it great already”, he said of America.
