Kaine’s Night of Excuses and Evasions for Hillary

Sen. Tim Kaine and Gov. Mike Pence went face-to-face Tuesday night in the vice presidential debate, and while the two spent time touting their own credentials, the majority of the debate focused inevitably on their presidential running mates.

And as is the case with any conversation that involves Hillary Clinton, her poor public image and record of personal scandal and policy failure were inevitably topics of discussion. And every time such issues were raised, Kaine offered nothing but excuse or evasion.

“In the wake of Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state … we see entire portions of the world, particularly the wider Middle East, literally spinning out of control.”

When moderator Elaine Quijano asked Kaine about Clinton’s trustworthiness, he avoided the question entirely, insisting that Clinton’s passion is more important than her personal ethics and integrity. “Why do so many people distrust her? Is it because they have questions about her emails and the Clinton Foundation?” she asked.

“Here’s what people should look at,” said Kaine. “Do they have a passion in their life that showed up before they were in public life? And have they held onto that passion throughout their life, regardless of whether they were in office or not, succeeding or failing?”

Clinton’s failed foreign policy record was a frequent topic of discussion during Tuesday night’s debate, and every time Pence pointed to a specific failure all Kaine could do was chant a mantra of Clinton’s supposed leadership on the Bin Laden raid and the Iranian nuclear deal.

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“In the wake of Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, where she was the architect of the Obama administration’s foreign policy, we see entire portions of the world, particularly the wider Middle East, literally spinning out of control,” said Pence in one exchange about foreign policy.

“Under Secretary Clinton’s leadership, she was part of the national team, public safety team that went after and revived the dormant hunt against bin Laden and wiped him off the face of the earth,” Kaine offered in response. “She worked a tough negotiation with nations around the world to eliminate the Iranian nuclear weapons program without firing a shot,” he added.

But Pence pointed out that of course Iran is free to resume its nuclear plan as soon as the agreed time frame of agreement ends. Kaine also tried to tout Clinton’s involvement in the infamous “Russian reset,” in response to which Pence pointed out that it was said “reset” that emboldened Russia to assert itself more aggressively in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Pence criticized Clinton for endorsing the false narrative that American law enforcement and society are implicitly racist, and specifically singled out Clinton’s comments on the death of Keith Lamont Scott, who was killed by a black police officer.

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“Hillary Clinton actually referred to that moment as an example of implicit bias in the police force,” said Pence. “When she was asked in the debate a week ago whether there was implicit bias in law enforcement, her only answer was that there’s implicit bias in everyone in the United States.”

“People shouldn’t be afraid to bring up issues of bias in law enforcement,” Kaine replied. When Pence insisted on the absurdity of the notion of implicit anti-black bias in a black police officer, Kaine accused him of denying all bias entirely.

“Why would Hillary Clinton accuse that African-American police officer of implicit bias?” asked Pence. “Well, I guess I can’t believe you are defending the position that there is no bias,” Kaine responded immediately.

Of course, Kaine’s most outrageous excuses were reserved for the Clinton Foundation’s corruption. When Pence brought up the Foundation’s “pay-to-play politics” and its accepting foreign donations for political influence, Kaine suggested the Foundation’s alleged good work would excuse any wrongdoings.

“The Clinton Foundation is one of the highest-rated foundations in the world,” Kaine insisted. “It provides AIDS drugs to about 11 million people,” he said as an example of the foundation’s great benevolence. It was an interesting example to choose.

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In September, a congressional report was released which “detailed how the Clinton Foundation and drug companies provided cheap but possibly watered-down anti-HIV drugs in Africa, drugs that may have hurt people suffering from HIV or AIDS,” LifeZette reported at the time.

But Kaine also insisted there were no wrongdoings at the Clinton Foundation to begin with. “Hillary Clinton as secretary of state took no action to benefit the foundation,” he said. “The State Department did an investigation and they concluded that everything Hillary Clinton did as secretary of state was completely in the interests of the United States,” as if an investigation by the Obama administration into a former Obama administration official and close ally has any true merit.

One can’t fault Kaine for his loyalty to Clinton, but his transparent excuses for Clinton’s history of misdeeds betray’s his campaign’s utter contempt for the intelligence of the American people.