On the third night of the Democratic convention, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine preceded President Obama’s keynote speech. This political renaissance man only received the job last Friday, but he swiftly showed the audience why he can be an enormous asset to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. He’ll balance her out and likely attract some conservatives with his foreign policy expertise (which Donald Trump sorely lacks). Kaine may not be the most exciting guy in the room — that honor goes to the electrifying Joe Biden — but this speech showed why he admires Clinton’s passion and doesn’t trust Donald Trump.
When Kaine first took the stage, he admitted that he doesn’t really fit in with this crowd: “Can I be honest with you about something? I never expected to be here.” He spoke a few lines in Spanish before addressing Clinton’s former rival, Bernie Sanders, in the audience: “We should all feel the Bern and not wanna get burned by the other guy.”
Kaine moved onto the main reason he trusts Clinton, who he highlights as fighting for women’s rights around the globe. Then he leveled with the audience: “When you want to know something about the character of someone in public, look to see if they have a passion, and did it start before they were in office, and have they held onto that passion?”
As for the other guy, Kaine said, “Donald Trump is a guy who promises a lot, but you may have noticed, he has a way of saying the same two words …. believe me.” He does a halfway decent Trump impression. Check it out up top.
Kaine tore down Trump over his missing taxes and his previous business flops where people have believed Trump and regretted it: “You cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth, not one word” from the “self-promoting, one-man wrecking crew.” Kaine didn’t make a massive case for Hillary Clinton in this solitary speech, but Bill did that last night. Instead, Kaine used Trump’s past to prove a lack of trustworthiness. And that could help sway a few voters on the edge.
You can watch the opening part of Kaine’s speech below, and the full version appears underneath.