See below for video and a partial transcript of Sen. Tim Kaine’s appearance this morning on Meet the Press (which sucks, by the way…I only watch clips when Virginians are on there). Bolding added, as usual, by me for emphasis.
- “I would very much support that – Tomahawk missiles have have long been used by the United States and they’re are primarily a sea-launched platform, which means we can’t really give them to other nations. But more recently, we’ve developed the ability to launch them from land. And I think they would be useful for Ukraine. The president does have to weigh. We need these missiles ourselves. We don’t have an infinite number. They’re expensive. You can’t just produce them by waving a magic wand. So, you do have to balance the need of the United States to have these missiles for our own readiness. But, I would support the delivery of an appropriate number of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.”
- “…there’s really two issues at stake. And the first is everybody’s healthcare is going to go sky high between now and the end of the year because of the reconciliation bill cuts that Republicans made to tax credits and to Medicaid. And we’re trying to stop that from happening. Offering a vote in the Senate without a commitment that it would pass, without a commitment that the House would even take it up, is an empty offer. We want to negotiate a resolution so people’s health care costs don’t spike. And Republicans are saying the same thing. They know they need to fix this, so let’s fix it now. The second issue we need to know is that a deal is a deal. If we shake hands with President Trump on a deal, we don’t want him then next week just firing thousands more people, cancelling economic development projects, cancelling public health funds. So, we are trying to get an agreement that a deal is a deal, all sides will honor it, and let’s go ahead and and protect people from these spiking health care costs. The promise of a vote in the Senate without the promise of action is hollow.”
- “Here’s what’s different now. The president told the Republicans to write this budget without any Democratic involvement. He instructed them to do this without any Democratic involvement. That’s not the way things work here. And so, when the Republicans wrote up this budget, we didn’t sit on our hands. We came up with an alternative that protected people from rising health care costs. We put it on the table on the the funding deadline. We asked to meet with the president. He wouldn’t do it until the day before the deadline. And when he met afterwards, he tweeted out pictures of Democratic leaders with AI-generated sombreros and funny accents. He’s not taking it seriously. We will get out of this shutdown within a matter of days or hours once the president engages. We all have to come together on this, Democrats and Republicans, House, Senate, and the White House. The president can’t say, ‘I will dictate terms that you have to follow.’ And so, the way we’ve avoided shutdowns in the past, and the way we got out of the shutdown that President Trump forced us into in 2019 was the president engages, and we find a path forward. If he will engage, we’ll find a path forward.”
- “I think we’re going to see this in about 10 days. Senator Paul and I co-sponsored a resolution to say no strikes against these boats in international waters without congressional approval. And we did not get enough votes. We did get all Democrats and two Republicans, Senator Paul and Senator Murkowski of Alaska, but we filed a new one saying no war against Venezuela or war within Venezuela. I think the massing of US troops, the president’s own announcement that he’s authorized covert operations in Venezuela. I chuckled when Senator Paul said it’s not covert once you publicly announce it. I think we’re going to get more Republicans on board with the notion that the president should not go to war without a vote of Congress. This is the most sacred responsibility that Congress has. The Constitution says war is a matter for Congress to declare, not for the president to initiate unilaterally. And and Kristen, we’re coming up on 250 years of American democracy. Remember that the framers of our Constitution chose to put the war power in the hands of Congress. Even though George Washington was president, they loved George Washington. They revered George Washington. But they didn’t think a decision about going to war should be in the hands of one person, even a general as great as George Washington.”
- [Question: “Senator, should Jay Jones drop out of this race?”] “No, he shouldn’t, Kristen. Those texts, private texts with a colleague, cannot be defended. They cannot be defended. But Jay Jones has apologized earnestly. The Republicans knew about these texts for years. They waited until the ballot was printed. And they waited until hundreds of thousands of people had already voted beginning on September 19th. The voters will make up their minds about these texts. The voters have to make up their minds in our governor’s race. The Republican gubernatorial candidate spoke about pro-choice activists and said, ‘murder is murder, and your time will come.’ The voters have to grapple with that. I’ve known Jay Jones for 25 years. I think this single text exchange that he had with a colleague was very out of character for him, and that’s why I continue to support him.”
- [Question: “…if this were a Republican, would you be calling for him to drop out of the race?”] “Absolutely not. It’s directly equivalent to things that the Republican gubernatorial candidate has publicly said, not in private text, ‘murder is murder, and your time will come.’ She said that in a public meeting speaking about pro-choice activists. I’ve not called for her to drop out of the race. The voters began voting in Virginia on September 19th. These are fair items for voters to consider as they cast their votes, but no, we’re not calling for Republicans to drop out of races. We do say apologize. You you have to take account for your actions and voters can look at the actions and look at your sincerity if you apologize. Apologies are in short supply in politics these days. I wish more people in politics would apologize for their bad actions and bad words.”
- [Question: “Senator, very quickly, do you worry that this entire controversy could hurt the Democratic gubanatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger and her chances of winning?”] “Kristen, I don’t. For your viewers who aren’t Virginians, we have a race two weeks from Tuesday – governor, a race for lieutenant governor, a race for attorney general, a race for every seat in our House of Delegates. Four big races. We’re a battleground state. I think those outcomes will send a message not only about Virginia, but about America in 2025. I think we’re going to do very well. I obviously think Jay Jones’ race for AG has been significantly affected by that, but everything we’re seeing suggests that the other races and especially the marquee race for governor is not being affected by this.”
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