This Week with George Stephanopoulos: Sen. Tim Kaine
Interview
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Well, George, what I just heard was the complete lack of a moral compass. If you are unwilling to say that the behavior of Donald Trump trying to overturn the peaceful transfer of power is a disqualifier. If you pledged despite that to vote for him, if you pledged despite that to pardon him should you be elected, it shows that you don't have the moral compass that you need to be the leader of the greatest nation in the world. And, sadly, Mr. Ramaswamy is not alone in lacking the compass. I think that was displayed pretty patently by many of the GOP candidates on the debate stage.
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I -- I discussed this with colleagues at the time of the second impeachment, George. I thought actually it might have been a more productive way to go than the second impeachment to -- to do a declaration under that section of the 14th Amendment. The language is specific. If you give aid and comfort to those who engage in an insurrection against the Constitution of the United States, it doesn't -- it doesn't say against the United States. It says against the Constitution. In my view, the attack on the Capitol that day was designed for particular purpose at a particular moment, and that was to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power as is laid out in the Constitution.
So, I think there is a powerful argument to be made. My -- my sense is it's probably going to get resolved in the courts. But, you know, I think what we have to focus on, on our side is -- is, we've just got to win in 2024. We've got to make sure that we have a great election in Virginia in 2023. Our state legislature is up, all 140. That will impact my state dramatically. The president and the DNC are investing heavily in Virginia, which is great, and that will then send a message about 2024.
So, I'll let the lawyers worry about the 14th Amendment. My colleagues and I, our focus is on winning.
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Well, look, here -- here's how I explain it. I think the years of Covid from March of 2020 through the end of the public health emergency have been brutal on Americans, have been so painful. More than a million dead, jobs lost, people couldn't visit a new grandchild, people couldn't go to the funeral of a friend. And I think there is a collective trauma that still is kind of working its way through the system. And as I travel around Virginia, George, I talk to a lot of people who feel pretty good about their circumstance, how their business is doing. But they're nervous about, well, what will it be like in two or three months? I think they're a little bit nervous to let their hopes get up after such a challenging time.
But as I look at what the Biden administration, working with Congress, has been able to do, delivering on infrastructure, delivering on clean energy, record job growth. Manufacturing is back in the United States. And I have every reason to believe we're going to continue to be able to celebrate those accomplishments.
So, on our side you're going to see an accomplishment momentum building and building and building. And on the other side you're going to be reading what is the latest news about Donald Trump's criminal trials.
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Well, again, I just look at it as, we've come through an unprecedented time. I'm 65 years old. The -- the experience during Covid that -- that I had and -- and I wasn't affected as directly as so many were, it was just unparalleled in my life. And I just think that a human psychology and an individual's life can also be a national psychology, which is, we're still climbing a ladder out of a very, very dark chapter. Joe Biden is building that ladder, trying to reorient our economy so that we don't focus on just folks at the top, but we build an economy that works bottom up, middle out.
I think a lot of the evidence is pointing in a good direction. We have to do, as Democrats, something that we don't do so well, which is go out and sell. Sell the accomplishments. Sell the infrastructure project. Sell the growth in manufacturing jobs. And if we do that, I think Joe Biden is going to get re-elected.
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Absolutely.
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