Tim Kaine made his first appearance on the campaign trail as Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate yesterday, urging Democrats to make history by putting Clinton in the White House and leaping to attack Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s record.
Joining Clinton at a rally in the battleground state of Florida, the bilingual Kaine peppered Spanish-language phrases into a speech focused heavily on introducing himself to voters unfamiliar with the low-key US senator from Virginia.
Kaine criticised Trump’s recent suggestion that he might not honour US security commitments to Nato in Europe, and the real estate mogul’s history of casino bankruptcies and founding the failed Trump University.
“When Donald Trump says he has your back, you better watch out,” Kaine said, with Clinton sitting at his side nodding. “He leaves a trail of broken promises and wrecked lives wherever he goes. We can’t afford to let him do the same thing to our country.”
Clinton unveiled her choice of Kaine late on Friday, grabbing the political spotlight from Trump, who accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday night after a chaotic four-day convention.
The former secretary of state will formally be nominated as her party’s presidential candidate in the November 8 election at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, which opens tomorrow.
In choosing the soft-spoken Kaine, a former Richmond mayor and Virginia governor with a long establishment resume, Clinton opted for a steady and experienced hand who she hopes will offer a clear alternative to Trump’s volatile campaign and his Republican vice presidential choice Mike Pence.
“Senator Tim Kaine is everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not. He is qualified to step into this job and lead on day one,” Clinton told the Miami crowd.
Clinton is hoping Kaine will help her appeal to independents and moderates, but some liberal groups and supporters of Clinton’s Democratic primary rival, US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, were dismayed by the choice because of Kaine’s past advocacy for giving the White House fast-track authority to negotiate an Asian free-trade pact.