This past week, Sen. Tim Kaine was busy kicking off his 2024 reelection campaign in a tour around Virginia. That includes the following stop in Norfolk, at which he had a riff I thought was well worth sharing, on how “we are up against a tear-down energy” that’s never been stronger in Kaine’s life; “a battle going on” all over the world, including here in the U.S., “between those who will stand up and stand together and those will tear us down and tear us apart.” And, of course, as Sen. Kaine explains, that “tear-down energy” is epitomized by Donald Trump – “the most skilled and significant tear-down artist ever in the history of this country” – including on January 6, 2021, when Sen. Kaine “stood barricaded in the Capitol…and saw the havoc that was being wreaked by somebody who could not admit that he lost an election.”
Check out the video for more of this important riff, including about how Trump is “tearing down important virtues that we like to teach our kids – honesty, kindness, respect for others, respect for the truth – tearing down alliances like NATO, tearing down rights that we’ve counted on for decades, like the right of people to make their own reproductive health care decisions; even tearing down our democracy itself.” In stark contrast, as Sen. Kaine explains, “we’ve got a president and vice president in Joe and Kamala who have done yeoman’s work – we’ve recovered from Covid faster than any nation on this planet, unemployment is down, manufacturing jobs are up, the uninsured rate in this country is the lowest that’s ever been in our history, 401ks are up, this is a team that’s about standing up and doing for others.” A stark contrast, indeed – and a clear choice for this November.
P.S. By the way, Sen. Kaine response to the protestors really highlights the difference between Trump and his ilk on the one hand versus Democrats like Sen. Kaine. As Sen. Kaine explains, “notice when it happens in Democratic events, we let it happen, we don’t encourage people to go after the protesters, and I acknowledge the protesters.” In stark contrast, Trump would probably exhort his followers to get violent with the protestors, would belittle them and definitely not take them seriously. So…yeah, that’s a fundamental difference between Democrats like Sen. Kaine and MAGA Republicans.
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
