Sen. Tim Kaine “Still Just Furious” About “A Day Never Imagined”

Sen. Tim Kaine was on Kojo Nnamdi’s “The Politics Hour” show yesterday, and had a lot to say. See below for a transcript, including:

• “Guys, it was — you know, I’ve said to a friend, it was a day never imagined, never to be forgotten and hopefully never to be repeated. And I am still just furious about it. I am furious that we had a president who incited it. I am furious that I had Senate colleagues who incited and repeated the big lie for months. Senators Hawley and Cruz were sending out fundraising emails during the attack on the Capitol, saying, you know, you should send me money and support my campaign because I’m standing up to try to overturn a stolen election. And I’m just furious about it.”
• “I am just furious that we have a President of the United States who felt comfortable trying to just burn it all down on his way out the door. And that might’ve been expected, but the willingness of some Senators to go along with it, I just — I’m still very emotional about it.“
• “[T]his morning, he tweeted out that he wasn’t going to be coming, and that’s good, because his presence there would’ve been an incitement to more violence. Just because he’s absent doesn’t mean there won’t be potential violence, but it will be easier to deal with it if he is far away from that Inauguration ceremony.”
• “With respect to Congress, first, we have to do a major investigation of the law enforcement failings that led the Capitol to be overrun. I talked to a Capitol Police officer Thursday morning, and he just said to me in confidence, you guys need to research this, investigate it, get to the bottom and call it like you see it, because the rank-and-file is extremely upset with our leadership. And this particular officer said to me, you know, maybe they had a plan and they asked for resources and they couldn’t get the resources. If that was the case, that’s one thing. But he and I both suspect that that wasn’t the case, that the plan was inadequate. We need to do that.”
• “[I]n the Senate, we have to, you know, analyze what the consequences should be. And, you know, a couple of things, guys, about those who either objected or voted for objections, not a single member had the guts to object to their own states’ results. Talk about a freebie. Talk about — you can just see these, you know, political minds at work.”
• “I do think there is a distinction between the instigators and the craven, sheep-like followers, and the instigators were Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. And even in their instigation, each of them was keeping an eye on the other. Josh Hawley got out first to be President Trump’s want-a-be an acolyte. And then Ted Cruz is, like, well, what do I do now? I can’t just say I agree, because then I’ll be following Hawley. I know, I’ll get 10 Senators to write a letter with me. The sheepish followers connected their name to a horrible cause that day, but the instigators who were raising funds, sending out fundraising emails as the Capitol was under attack, repeating their big lie, we’ve got to contemplate what the consequences of that will be.”
• “None of my constituents ever come up to me talking about the Senate rules. But they do come up asking for us to act on increasing the minimum wage or doing things to promote gun safety or, you know, comprehensive immigration reform or D.C. statehood. So, look, if we can do those things with no adjustments to rules, great. But if what we suddenly find is that the Biden-Harris administration is getting blocked repeatedly by the use of arcane Senate procedures that aren’t required, I’m going to focus on getting the job done for people.”