Sen. Tim Kaine was on WAMU’s The Politics Hour earlier this afternoon. Here are a few highlights of what he had to say – on voting to end the federal government shutdown, on his support for Chuck Schumer as leader (but also that the idea Schumer can order US Senators is around is absurd), and on Virginia possibly redistricting US House seats this coming spring.
Sen. Kaine: “I’m getting some holy hell, but I’m getting a lot of thanks from Virginians. I mean, there were bad options, so I have no judgment about anybody who resolved this
question differently than me. I am getting a tremendous amount of thanks from Virginians for my vote. But it’s interesting your question is was it necessary? I think the question was it was unavoidable. Was it avoidable? Yes, we stay out of shutdowns or we get out of them when presidents engage. Why didn’t we have shutdowns when Joe Biden
was president? We had deadlines every year, multiple deadlines. We never had shutdowns, because if we would get near the deadline, Biden would get the legislative leaders together…I’m a supporter of Chuck Schumer and anybody who thinks that the leader just leads the followers around by a leash, you don’t know the US Senate. I mean the notion that Chuck Schumer is supposed to control the vote of every senator, that just is not the way the Senate works. And I’ve said this often. I voted for Chuck to be my leader and I want him to be my leader. and as majority leader, he produced some of the most consequential years that we’ve ever had in the Senate in recent history during the Biden presidency, but he does not have the ability to just tell senators which way to march and expect them to. And I kept Schumer informed about where I was, but when I had an opportunity to leverage from the White House significant concessions to benefit
families and federal contractors, I acted in the interest of Virginia, which is what my voters expect me to do. And Chuck Schumer can’t be blamed for that.”
Sen. Kaine: “The motivation for Republicans was not the shutdown. The motivation is
their own political hide. They created a massive problem with the reconciliation bill that is spiking costs of all kinds. Energy costs, food costs, but health care costs in particular. And they have a need to get this right or or next November’s midterms are going to look even worse than the November 2025 elections in Virginia and New Jersey and all over the country. So with the shutdown out of the way, we can have this healthcare debate on the main stage with the spotlight on it, without the background noise of air traffic control delays and SNAP recipients losing benefits. It’s up to the Democrats to put a proposal on the table to fix this problem that will be attractive to those Republicans who have said publicly they know we need to fix it – and we’ll have it. And I think we’ve got a great chance of fixing it. But if we don’t, everyone will know where Democrats stand. Everyone will know where Republicans stand and they will act accordingly in next year’s midterm election.”
Sen. Kaine (asked about redistricting): “The whole thing is regrettable, but it’s
it’s only because of Donald Trump. No states, Democratic or Republican, were doing mid decennial redistricting until Donald Trump realized that he might lose the House and has forced states to focus on having his back rather than focusing on their own interests. And the Virginia legislators made that very plain. We would not do this but for that. And if the Republicans back off and and stop following Trump to do this, there’s some chance it won’t happen in Virginia. But you can’t expect Trump to bully Republican states into hyperpartisan redistricting and that Democratic majority states will just sit on their hands. And so the Virginia General Assembly is not sitting on their hands. Maybe Republican states will think better of this and back off and then maybe Virginia would back off. But
if they’re going full speed ahead, I understand why the Virginia legislature is doing the same thing.”
