Video: On “Morning Joe,” Sen. Tim Kaine Says It Was “Astounding” to See Republican Senators “giving each other fist bumps” After “knifing veterans in the back”

See below for video of Sen. Tim Kaine speaking this morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show. According to Sen. Kaine:

• On the killing of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri: “Very very good news and it sends a lesson. I mean this is a guy who has basically been living a shadow life in safe houses for 20 years trying avoiding the U.S., but he couldn’t. We are very patient people and if you plot an attack against us there’s no place in the world you can wait us out. Great intel…Obviously some important tips that led us to al-Zawahiri. But then, even after we had the information, the care that was used in planning an operation to minimize casualties in the middle of a crowded Kabul was most impressive. So as a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committee with an awful lot of Virginia scar tissue because of the attack of 9/11 on the Pentagon and others who died over 20 years serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was very good news to hear this last night.”
• On Republicans voting against the PACT Act, opposing women’s reproductive freedom, and “what is going on with the Republican Party?” “Just to take two of the items mentioned, this Republican switcheroo where they voted for veterans healthcare to provide care to Iraq and Afghan war veterans who suffered because of these burn pits, they voted for it and then because they were mad that Democrats were doing Reconciliation, not only did they switch votes and kill the bill, but there’s video of Republican Senators on the floor giving each other fist bumps – didn’t we do such a great thing by knifing veterans in the back and voting against this health care bill. It was astounding. And the second point you mentioned. Post-Dobbs America is now an America where a 10-year-old has to get smuggled across state lines to get an abortion to terminate a pregnancy because of a rape. And what does Indiana do in the aftermath of that? They try to say well, we ought to be compassionate to 10-year-olds? No. The Republican Attorney General in the state is slandering and attacking the doctor who provided the care and the Indiana legislature is trying to close loopholes so a 10-year-old cannot get this care in the Hoosier State. What have we come to? So those of us here who since before January 6th have really been worried about the state of this democracy, it just means we have to work harder to build bridges and inject some common sense into a politics that seems like it’s gone haywire.”
• On Sen. Kaine’s effort to safeguard reproductive fights: “American women had relied for 50 years on Roe v Wade, Casey and Griswold, and the Supreme Court took it all the way with this decision – massively misinterpreting what the 14th amendment was designed to do and ignoring a century of precedent, including 50 years of precedent about reproductive rights. We had two votes earlier this year on a Democratic bill, the Women’s Health Protection Act, which I voted for. But in the first instance in February, we only got 49 votes. And when we were queuing the same bill for a second vote in May, I started to think, I don’t think it sends a good signal if it seems like only a minority of the Senate wants to protect women’s reproductive freedom and I think we’re leaving votes on the table. So I went out to colleagues who I knew wanted to codify the holdings of Roe into federal statute, and said of, if the WHPA isn’t what you like, can we do it a different way? And that led to the Reproductive Freedom for All Act, which is based pretty significantly on a Michigan ballot referendum to add a protection to the Michigan constitution that’s going to be on the ballot in November. You asked me, will it be passed? I will be honest, I don’t have 60 votes to pass this. But two months ago, we did not have 60 votes to pass gun legislation. We’ve sat on our hands for a decade, but the tragedies in Buffalo and Texas changed the reality. And I think the tragedies of a post-Dobbs America, with 10-year-olds being smuggled across state lines will change the reality here in Congress and get us to a point where we will protect women’s reproductive freedom.”