Video: Sen. Tim Kaine Rips Doug Mastriano (Trump’s Nominee for Ambassador to the Slovak Republic) for Being Conspiracy Theorist, in Pro-Trump Mob on 1/6/21, etc.

I really would love to see more of this version of Sen. Tim Kaine (and all other Democratic U.S. Senators) – the one who absolutely eviscerated Douglas Mastriano yesterday, in a hearing about whether Mastriano should be U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic. In short, given Mastriano’s horrendous record with regard to attacking U.S. democracy, espousing crazy conspiracy thories, associating with horrible people, being in the pro-Trump mob on 1/6/21, etc. he should absolutely *not* be an ambassador to any country, or hold any public office of any kind – ever. Check out Sen. Kaine’s demolition of Mastriano yesterday; if Mastriano had any shame, he would have announced right then and there that he was withdrawing from consideration for this position, but he clearly has no shame.

“Mr. Mastriano, I look at your nomination and I have a real sense of sadness about it and I’m going to tell you why. Your military record of service to the country and your sacrifice is really superb and you and you went into that in your own statement and I find so much to admire there. Your own sacrifice and your family’s sacrifice. And then in in the middle of your comments, you kind of hinted, ‘But then I got into politics. I had been respected in the military, but then I got into politics and people called me everything but a good man.’  I think you need to look in the mirror a little bit.

My colleague, both my colleagues have pointed out evidences of things that you’ve said and people you’ve associated with that are highly, highly unusual. You’ve you’ve associated with anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers. you’ve associated with 9/11 conspiracy theorists. you’ve made comments about foreign leaders that are not diplomatic in quality.

And you and I share a very special day in American history. We were both here on Jan. 6, 2021 You engaged in repeated efforts before that day in sense to challenge the integrity of the presidential election. And there’s even some controversy about what exactly you were doing here on the Capitol that day. But there isn’t any controversy about why you were here. You were here because you were urging Congress to reject the certification of the electoral results and to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power. And all of us who were here that day remember what it was like to be under attack with people who were trying to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

I never served in the military, but I lived in a military dictatorship in Honduras when I was a missionary. And I know what dictators do. And I know what it is to undermine democratic institutions. And to my knowledge, now you can correct me if I’m wrong. To my knowledge, you’ve never retracted your belief that that election was somehow illegitimate. I was on the floor later in the day after the rioters were finally cleared and I watched both of your state senators at the time, Senator Casey and Senator Toomey, when a non-Pennsylvanian challenged the Pennsylvania results. I believe it was a Senator from Missouri. I watched both of your state’s Senators absolutely shred the argument that there was anything wrong about the Pennsylvania election results, that they they were insulted that a Missouri Senator would challenge the integrity of the Pennsylvania elections, and they shredded that argument just like courts have repeatedly shredded the argument. Am I wrong? Have you retracted the various conspiracies that you apparently have been laboring under with respect to the 2020 election?…

…How about today? Will you accept the 2020 presidential… I’m not saying ‘certified’. The question was was Joe Biden elected the president…I’m not asking you about your criminal record. Just answer this question. Was Joe Biden elected president in 2020 by both the popular vote and the electoral college?

…I’ve never known a conspiracy theorist who just believed one conspiracy. Conspiracy theorists generally are gullible people. They might have master’s degrees and PhDs and you’ve got  them and the United States is invested in you to have those degrees, but somebody who will believe a conspiracy theory about 911 or the Holocaust or about the January January 2020 election, they’re gullible…You preach conspiracies about the 2020 election. Guess what? that a fourth grader with common sense would find ridiculous…’All I did was hold a hearing.’ Oh, but forget that I came to the capital on January 6th that was under attack and urged people to reject a peaceful transfer… You can’t erase your record now.”