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See below for a few highlights from Sen. Tim Kaine’s weekly press availability – lots of interesting, newsworthy stuff (most of which the “mainstream”media probably won’t report on).
First, on the Republicans’ witch hunt against Dr. Anthony Fauci (an American hero, albeit not perfect of course – who is? – IMHO):
“Dr. Fauci made his own call to invoke the Fifth Amendment, and I’m not going to put myself in in his shoes. Does he have reason to believe that there’s sort of a vendetta against him and that people might try to weaponize information against him? I think sadly he does have something to fear from that. Now, he was granted a pardon by President Biden at the end of the Biden administration for precisely this reason. But I here’s what I really think. Having the [Homeland Security] Committee spend time trying to decide what Dr. Fauci did in 2020 and 2021, instead of trying to bring down people’s health care costs today, their housing cost today, their energy costs today, I think it’s all kind of a waste of attention and focus. I mean, what are Virginians telling me? I travel around the state all the time. Are they coming up to me and saying, ‘You got to look at what Dr. Fauci did six years ago.’ No, they’re saying that health care costs too much. How come 12 health clinics in Virginia have closed since Republicans passed the reconciliation bill last year cutting Medicaid and so now they don’t have primary health clinics in their community? They’re asking me about that. They’re asking me about gas prices. Does Dr. Fauci have anything to do with that? No. It’s a combination of chaotic tariff policies and an unnecessary war. So, if I’m just going by what I’m hearing from Virginians, the people who put me in this office, they’re not saying a revenge campaign against a guy who’s in his mid-80s who retired four years ago is the best use of our time and our energy right now. They’re saying bring down housing cost, bring down energy costs, bring down health care costs. That’s what they’re telling us.”
Next, on the extremely dangerous nomination of Trump crony Todd Blanche to the extremely powerful position of US Attorney General:
“I’m going to vote against Todd Blanche because no law enforcement official worth their salt would have even contemplated entering into that deal. Remember, the deal was not only the establishment of an anti-weaponization fund. It was also a deal to shield the president and his family from any auditing of their taxes now or going forward. Who gets that deal? You don’t get that deal. I don’t get that deal. I don’t have a single business in Virginia or everyday person that gets shielded for from future tax liability or tax auditing. And so, yeah, the fact that Todd Blanche presided over that deal and thought he could like blow it by the American public demonstrates an incredible lack of judgment. And so, now because he wants to be confirmed attorney general, he’s saying, ‘Well, I’ll pull back the weaponization fund’, he hasn’t said he’ll pull back the sweetheart tax deal for the Trump family. And so no, I think the judgment that he demonstrated in entering into the deal in the first place was foolish. And I’ve got real concerns about the way he has also mishandled the Epstein files. The administration told the American public that they would release these files and they’d be transparent about them. Instead, starting with Pam Bondi and now through Todd Blanche, they’ve broken their word. They haven’t done what they said they were going to do. So, no, I’m not going to support.”
On the proposed Dominon-NextEra merger/acquisition:
“It is such an important issue for Virginians that I think, although it is not something that has been done in the past, I don’t know that there’s been a transaction as big and consequential in the past in the energy space as this one. And so…I haven’t talked to the governor about it, but I’m sure she has thought very very long and hard about it. And as my quick reading of the news this morning and her op-ed suggests, you know, she’s really looking at at three key issues. One is what does this mean for Virginians and what they’ll pay for power? Second, what does this mean for the dedicated workforce that has kept our lights on and repaired lines when they’ve been knocked down in storms? And third, what does it mean for the supply of energy and in especially for a supply that we hope will be cleaner and more focused on renewable energy every day? And those are exactly the kinds of questions that I think the regulators should be asking. And I think Governor Spanberger is is right to raise those same questions and want to weigh in with her thoughts about each of them as as the facts and the and the consequences become more plain.”
Finally, on a possible data center moratorium in Virginia (I agree with much of what Sen. Kaine says on this; I wouldn’t do a statewide, blanket moratorium, but I *would* put strong new regulations in place on data centers’ power consumption, water usage, noise, setbacks, etc, etc., before new ones are allowed to go forward. Also, they should absolutely pay their fair share of the costs, not pass those on to ratepayers):
“It’s the fact that Virginia has been the data center capital has had some economic benefits for Virginia, certainly, and it raises some challenges. I mean the economic benefits – look at the local taxes that these centers pay. They’ve enabled certain jurisdictions to, for example, to significantly reduce local property taxes. At the same time, they’ve been able to fund significant local infrastructure like school construction without requiring increases in property taxes to do so. So, there have been some pluses. The minuses though are also pretty apparent. Water usage, energy usage in particular. I don’t support a statewide moratorium because I think there are certain communities and counties in Virginia that really they see what data centers have done to the economies of some of the northern Virginia counties and they would say look if there are too many up there we would like to be part of this industry rather than have a moratorum and shut us out of what economic opportunities they present. So here’s something I think was interesting. The Virginia legislature, as you know, kind of took a a middle ground position. They didn’t do a moratorum and they didn’t repeal tax exemptions, but they imposed an energy consumption tax on the data centers to make sure that the data centers are sort of paying their full freight of electricity usage so that the rates don’t increase unacceptably for families and businesses. Now, that law was just passed and so is it going to go into effect in a way that will be effective where citizens will see their energy bills not spiking too much? We have to see. But I think what the tack that Virginia has taken is make these data centers, you know, carry their own weight in terms of energy provision. And I want to see that implemented and then we can see whether that’s an effective strategy. It’s a unique one. It’s an innovative one. If it works, other states will learn something from it. But we’ll we need to see whether it works.”
