Sen. Tim Kaine on ABC’s “This Week” this morning.
Marth Raddatz: “I know you heard Secretary Duffy there talking about, the onus is on the Democrats and you’re Fighting to get illegal health Care for immigrants.”
Sen. Tim Kaine: “Well, I just got to say, Martha, that’s a lie. The health care battle is not about health care for illegal immigrants and Sean Duffy knows it. It’s about millions of Americans who in the last few weeks have gotten premium increase notices that tell them that Donald Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill is delivering them big, ugly health insurance bills within the next few weeks unless we can find a fix. And so what we’re asking for is, let’s find a path to a fix, and let’s also have President Trump finally engage in the negotiation and guarantee that a deal is a deal; if we shake hands on a deal for 30 days or For three months, he won’t Immediately start firing more people, clawing back economic development projects, going after blue states or blue cities, and allowing funds to be used in red cities. So, look, we’re looking for a path to fix people’s health care costs, and we’re looking for the President to agree that a deal is a deal. Thus far, he’s refused to engage. And we avoid shutdowns or get out of shutdowns all the time when the president engages.”
Martha Raddatz: “What have the democrats gained from this?
Sen. Tim Kaine: “Well, i don’t look at this as politics. I mean, the president told the House, do a budget, in his words, don’t deal with Democrats. So, Senate Democrats put an alternative on the table 12 days before September 30 that fixed the health care wreckage that the Republicans caused, and that insured that a deal would be honored, both by Congress and the White House. The president refused to meet until the day before the deadline. He had Democrats in the Oval Office, and as soon as they walked out, he put up an AI-generated video of them wearing sombreros and talking in AI-generated fake voices saying things they didn’t say. The guy’s unserious. But he’s willing — hold on, he’s been willing to give $20 billion to the Argentines to meet with them, wreck the Hhite House, have a Great Gatsby party down at Mar-a-Lago. He has not said what he said needed to be done in 2011, sit down with Democratic leadership, will be resolved in a matter of hours.”
Martha Raddatz: “Senator, I want to go back…to what Democrats have gotten during this period. Not talking about politics, what have Democrats gained during this period? And how long can this last?”
Sen. Tim Kaine: “You know, Martha, I’m a United States Senator. And yeah, I run as a Democrat and I’m a Democrat, but I just don’t approach my work that way. So when you ask what Democrats have gained, what we’re focused on is the American people. We want President Trump to stop firing people, canceling economic development projects. We want him to stop raising everybody’s costs, you know, health care costs, energy costs, housing costs. Halloween’s more expensive, Thanksgiving is more expensive, the holidays are going to be more expensive. So we’re asking the president to simply sit down and do what all presidents do. We can find a budget deal that puts us on a path to a healthcare fix. I don’t need all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed…”
Martha Raddatz: “Virginia holds key elections on Tuesday. Are you confident that Democrats can sweep this?”
Sen. Tim Kaine: “I feel really good about it, Martha. And here’s why. In Virginia, we are the best red-to-blue turnaround in the country in the last 25 years. And the way we’ve done it is by focusing on the economy. Abigail Spanberger, our candidate, three pillars to her campaign: affordability, jobs, and education, which is about kids, but also about our workforce. Her opponent is running ads on offbeat cultural issues that don’t really matter to most people. In Virginia, Democrats focus on the economy, winning the economic argument, delivering economic results and that’s why the state has moved from red to blue so dramatically since 2000.”
