Sen. Tim Kaine, speaking last night on MSNBC, had the following to say about Donald Trump praising Vladimir Putin as “savvy” and “genius”:
“There will be some [Republicans] who will follow Donald Trump. You know, Donald Trump calling Putin’s move a ‘genius move,’ a ‘savvy move,’ you know he couldn’t get a Nobel Prize, so he’s maybe trying out for the Order of Lenin, or even better, finally a Trump Tower in Moscow. But we’ll put our Republican colleagues on the board and see whether they’re Vladimir Putin appeasers or whether they are standing up for the Western democracies. And I believe that enough Republicans will stand against Vladimir Putin’s aggression that we will be able to coalesce around a sanctions package…There’s no disputing now that the Russia recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk and moving of military assets in Ukraine, the trigger has been passed and the Western democracies led by the United States have to stand up against it.”