Video: Sen. Tim Kaine Says Putin Ignored U.S. Warning of Terrorist Attack; Republicans Just Want to “raise a ruckus about the border” – NOT Fix It; 2024 Election a Choice Between “pro-democracy” and “pro-authoritarian”

I really dislike linking to right-wing-propaganda media like Fox “News,” but that’s where Sen. Tim Kaine was this morning, and he had some interesting things to say, so…see below for video and a few highlights, including:

• “First, my heart goes out to the families in Russia that were
  affected by this [terrorist attack in Moscow]. The US did warn Russia, and Vladimir Putin gave a speech on Tuesday discounting the warning, saying we were trying to meddle and create confusion. We also warned Iran a couple months ago about a potential attack by ISIS K there. If you want to know the  difference between democracies and authoritarians, we will tell nations if we’re worried about their civilians; Russia or Iran would never tell us if they had news that there was going to be a  terrorist attack in the United States.”
• “With respect to the southern border, the southern border is a challenge. That’s why since I came to the Senate, I’ve been part of bipartisan efforts to fix it again and again and again. But each time, whether it was bipartisan immigration reform in 2013, a bipartisan deal in 2018, or the deal we put together just last month in February, bipartisan to invest at the border, each time the Republicans torch it – Donald Trump even making plain the last thing they want to do is fix the border, they just want to raise a ruckus about the border. We need to get serious about fixes.”
• “I don’t think it’s it’s an invasion. It is an immigration crisis, it’s a national security issue, but I think you’ve got to be careful throwing around words like invasion. It was that kind of wording that led the deranged guy to go shoot up the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh killing folks a couple years ago. And I think that kind of rhetoric is irresponsible. But it is a crisis, we have to solve it. And we had a wonderful chance in February when conservative Republican Senator James Lankford negotiated with Democrats and the White House and his own caucus to come up with a packet of measures – really significant measures – to control the border. And then, after we basically had a deal, Donald Trump said don’t vote for this deal, we would rather complain about this for the next nine months than fix the problem. Donald Trump was willing to let more fentanyl come over the border killing more Americans to try to gain a political edge rather than find a solution. We’ve got a good solution on the table; we should act to do it in a bipartisan way.”
• “I’ll tell you about all of the amendment votes. The House and Senate negotiated a bipartisan deal and then the House sent it to us just hours before government was going to shut down at midnight that included defense and it included DHS and border security. The House then went home, everyone left. So if we had voted for any of the amendments and they had passed, the bill would have had to go back over to the House – they weren’t there, government would have shut down. If you want to see a border crisis, shut down government and see how bad it is…When the House sends us the bill with just hours to spare before the shutdown and leaves town, at that point you can’t adjust it or government does shut down. I’m always against shutdown, I mean I live in Virginia, a whole lot of people depend upon government services and then you’ve got issues like the defense and and border protection; if you shut things down, it just gets worse.”
• “We’re a closely divided nation… I’ve seen it again and again and again. I live in a state, Virginia, where elections are often very very close, and I don’t have any illusions about now to November. I’m going to be on the ballot too; I have no illusions that it’s just going to be simple…But I’m very confident that when we lay out our competing visions for the future – Joe Biden building off unemployment falling,  manufacturing jobs going up, people’s 401Ks going up, the lowest uninsured rate in American history. We compare it with Donald Trump, who is urging January 6th protesters to be pardoned and using phrases like bloodbath, etc. to talk about what he hopes to do in a second term, I think people are going to realize how high the stakes are…I’m going to be a dictator on day one…He has a a way of saying these things that are super explosive and then kind of walking them half back…We saw on January 6, it’s not just words…I am concerned about the state of American democracy as we’re getting ready to celebrate America’s 250th birthday in 2026. But I believe American voters will embrace pro-democracy rather than pro-authoritarian, and that’s the stark difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. I’m confident in the American electorate; I think we’re going to get it right in November.”

P.S. Great job by Sen. Kaine, but…my god, Fox “News” is appalling, including in this case their host Shannon Bream attempting to excuse/water down Trump’s “bloodbath” comments, and her relentless right-wing-biased selection and “framing” of questions in general. Pathetic, and really raises the question as to why any Democrat would go on this network.