At a rally in Miami on Saturday, Hillary Clinton introduced her running
mate, Tim Kaine, one of the most qualified vice presidential candidates
in history. She applauded his lifelong commitment to public service: his
work with missionaries in Honduras; as a civil rights lawyer and his
leadership as city council member, mayor of Richmond, Governor of
Virginia, and U.S. Senator. Throughout his career, he has brought people
together to deliver for those he represents. “And that’s why I am so
thrilled to announce that my running mate is a man who doesn’t just
share those values, he lives them.” Clinton said.
Kaine agreed with Clinton that we must build an economy for all, not
just those at the top and that when Americans stand together we are
stronger together. “And I know that because Hillary knows that we’re
stronger together; we’re stronger when we work together, when we grow
together, when we pull together […] So I could not be any more honored
to stand by Hillary’s side in this very important campaign.” Kaine said.
Clinton and Kaine's remarks, as transcribed, are below:
HILLARY CLINTON:
“Hello, Miami. I am so excited and grateful to be here with all of you.
I must say, after everything we’ve just seen at the Republican
Convention this past week –– being here with you on this beautiful day
is truly like a breath of fresh air. When I look out at all of you, you
know what I see? I see America’s future. Instead of the fear and the
anger and the resentment, the lack of any solutions to help working
families get ahead or keep our country safe, I sense the confidence, the
optimism that – you know what? – we are stronger together and we’re
going to make that future better. Donald Trump may think America’s in
decline, but he’s wrong. America’s best days are still ahead of us, my
friends. And when he says, as he did say, ‘I alone can fix it’ – he’s
not only wrong, he’s dangerously wrong.We Americans – we solve problems
together. And if Donald doesn’t understand that, he doesn’t understand
America. I know that no one does anything all alone, and part of our
challenge is to make sure we do work together. I’m looking forward to
working with your elected officials. I want to thank Senator Bill
Nelson, who was with me yesterday in Orlando and Tampa. I want to thank
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. And I’m looking forward to
working with her and with Congresswoman Frederica Wilson and Congressman
Alcee Hastings. And I want to thank all the elected officials from all
levels of government who are here and supporting our campaign and our
vision for the country.Now, next week – next week in Philadelphia, we
will offer a very different vision for our country, one that is about
building bridges, not walls, embracing the diversity that makes our
country great, lifting each other up, standing together, because we know
there’s nothing we can’t accomplish once we make up our minds. And
that’s why I am so thrilled to announce that my running mate is a man
who doesn’t just share those values, he lives them.
I have to say – I have to say that 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. And he is a progressive who likes to get
things done. That’s just my kind of guy, Tim. We both grew up in the
Midwest. We were raised by fathers who ran small businesses and who
taught us about the dignity of work and the discipline of a job well
done. And in both of our families, faith wasn’t just something you
talked about at church on Sundays. It was a call to serve others in
every way that we can. And as you get to know Senator Kaine, you will
see that Tim’s lifelong commitment to social justice is a shining
example of his faith in action.
During law school, when his fellow classmates were taking internships at
prestigious law firms, he took time off to work with missionaries in
Honduras. And after he graduated from Harvard Law School, he could have
done anything, but instead he chose to become a civil rights lawyer. One
of his first cases was a pro bono case representing a woman who was
denied an apartment because she was African American. So while Tim was
taking on housing discrimination and homelessness, Donald Trump was
denying apartments to people who were African American.
He is still fighting those battles today, serving as a non-partisan city
council member, and then the mayor of Richmond, Virginia. He worked
hard to bridge racial divides. He built the first new schools in a
generation. He helped turn that struggling city around. And as
governor of Virginia, he led the commonwealth through the worst
financial crisis in a generation. What did he do? He brought Democrats
and Republicans together to protect the programs that working families
count on. And while Mike Pence slashed education funding in Indiana –and
gave more tax cuts to the wealthiest– Tim Kaine cut his own salary and
invested in education from pre-K through college and beyond. And by the
time Tim left office, 40 percent more of Virginia’s kids were enrolled
in early education programs. And then as a United States senator, Tim
has used his positions on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services
Committees to stand up for our veterans and our values and our men and
women in uniform and our security. Now, there’s no doubt in my mind –
because I’m here with him– that Tim is so qualified to be vice
president, and as I have said many times, the most important
qualification when you are trying to make this really big choice is can
this person step in to be president. Well, at every stage of Tim’s
career, the people who know him best have voted to give him a promotion.
And that’s because he fights for the people he represents, and he
delivers real results.
Now, I can’t wait for all of you to get to know him the way that I have,
the proud father of three grown-up kids –who have their own lives and
are making their own contributions, including serving our country – a
loving husband of a brilliant wife –, who is a great fighter for
progressive causes in her own right; the leader who cares more about
making a difference than making headlines – and make no mistake – behind
that smile, Tim also has a backbone of steel. Just ask the NRA.
Over and over again he has had the courage to stand up to the gun lobby
in their own back yard. After the horrible Virginia Tech shooting, he
signed an executive order to keep guns out of the hands of those who
were deemed severely mentally ill. And he has fought for common-sense
gun from across the country, as we saw just a few weeks ago when he
joined the 15-hour Senate filibuster asking that we get those reforms
done.
So when I say he’s a progressive who likes to get things done, I mean
it. He’s not afraid to take on special interests, whether he’s calling
for tough regulations on payday lending, or fighting back against a tax
on Planned Parenthood and defending a woman’s right to make our own
health decisions. Tim has led on some of the most important issues
facing our country, from voting rights to LGBT equality – to criminal
justice reform to comprehensive immigration reform.
Now, after last week, I probably don’t need to say this, but I will.
This is one of the most consequential elections in our lifetimes. When
someone says, ‘I alone can fix it,’ – that should set off alarm bells in
not just Democrats’ minds, but Republicans, independents, people of all
ages and backgrounds. That is not a democracy. I said yesterday in
Tampa, we fought a revolution because we didn’t want one man making all
the decisions for us. And besides, it is just nonsense. No one does
anything alone.
We don’t have a one-person military. We don’t have a one-person
teaching corps. We don’t have one doctor and one nurse who fixes
everything, do we? We work together. That is what has traditionally set
us apart from places that have turned to single leaders, despots,
dictators, authoritarians, who have promised people, ‘I can fix it
alone.’ You know what that says about us? That somehow we’re
helpless? We can’t do this work that needs to be done in America
ourselves? That we can’t reach out to one another? That we can’t make
the economy work for everyone, not just those at the top? I reject
that. I reject that. And next week, starting on Monday in
Philadelphia, you’re going to see a very different kind of vision.
So I wanted to come here to Miami. I wanted to come here to introduce
you to the person that I just can’t think of anybody better to have by
my side on the campaign trail, in the White House. Together we are
going to take on the challenges that are hurting Americans. We are
going to give the middle class a raise. We are going to give tax relief
to working families to help with the rising costs of raising kids. We
are going to create more good jobs. We’re to make sure every child in
America has the chance to live up to his or her God-given potential.
So please, join us. Join us. Take out your phone right now. Text
‘join’ to 47246 or go to
hillaryclinton.com because
we are hiring organizers right here in Florida right now. So be
involved in every way that you can because together we’re going to win
this election and move our country forward.
Please join me in welcoming the next vice president, my friend, Senator
Tim Kaine!”
TIM KAINE:
“Hey, guys, thank you! Hello, Miami! Hello, FIU! ¡Y bienvenidos a
todos! ¡Bienvenidos a todos en nuestra país, verdad, porque somos
americanos todos! I’m feeling a lot of things today, most of all
gratitude. I’m grateful to you, Hillary, for the trust that you’ve
placed in me, and we’re going to be compañeros de alma in this great
lucha ahead.
I’m grateful to the country which has given me so much. I’m grateful to
all of you Floridians, my Virginians, all Americans who’ve poured their
hearts into this wonderful, wonderful campaign. And today, like every
day, I’m especially grateful to my wife Anne – I love you, honey. I
love you, honey – and to three beautiful kids, Nat, Woody, and Annella.
I am the luckiest dad and the luckiest husband in the world.
This is quite a week for me. And believe it or not, for as powerful as
it is to become Hillary Clinton’s running mate, that’s not the only
thing on my mind this week. Anne and I have three kids. Our oldest son
Nat is here today with his fiancée. He’s a proud Marine. And in just a
few days, he’s deploying to Europe to uphold America’s commitment to our
NATO allies. For me, this drives home the stakes in this election.
Nearly two million men and women put their lives on the line for this
country as active duty, as reservists, as guard members. They deserve a
commander-in-chief with the experience and the temperament to lead.
What does Donald Trump say about these great Americans, these two
millions? He repeatedly calls the American military ‘a disaster.’ And
just this week Donald Trump said that as president, he’d consider
turning America’s back on our decades-old commitments to our allies.
And all of you remember a few months ago when he said about a Senate
colleague of then-Senator Clinton’s and mine, John McCain, that he
wasn’t a hero because he had been captured and served as a prisoner of
war in Vietnam. And he wants to be commander-in-chief? While our
service members are out there on the front lines, Trump’s saying he’d
leave our allies at the mercy of an increasingly aggressive Russia, and
folks, that’s an open invitation to Vladimir Putin to just roll on in.
Even a lot of Republicans say that that’s terribly dangerous. When you
–“
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “[…] crazy.”
TIM KAINE: “Alright, I’m hiring for the speechwriting
team. That – We’ve seen again and again that when Donald Trump says he
has your back, you’d better watch out. From Atlantic City to his
so-called university, 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. And folks, we don’t have to – because Hillary Clinton is
the direct opposite of Donald Trump.”
AUDIENCE: “Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!”
TIM KAINE: “Hillary Clinton, she doesn’t insult
people, she listens to them. What a novel concept, right? She doesn’t
trash our allies, she respects them. And she’ll always have our backs –
that is something I am rock-solid sure of. I know that because Hillary
knows that we’re stronger together; we’re stronger when we work
together, when we grow together, when we pull together, when we live in
the same neighborhood and worship together and go to school together.
When we’re together, we’re stronger.
So I could not be any more honored to stand by Hillary’s side in this
very important campaign.”
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “We love you both!”
TIM KAINE: “Well, I’ve spent most of my life in public
service because I believe in doing everything I can to make a positive
difference in people’s lives, and I can see a lot of you out there who
feel exactly the same way – exactly the same way. I’m one of only 20
people in American history to serve as a mayor, a governor, and a United
States senator. So I have been able to see how government works and how
sometimes it doesn’t, from just about every perspective, and I’ve
always believed that however you serve, what matters is whether you
actually deliver results for people. And that’s been my goal – that’s
been my goal in every position I’ve ever held.
Now, I know for a lot of you, this might be the first time you’re
hearing me speak, and hey, let me be honest, for many of you, this is
the first time you’ve even heard my name. But that’s okay, because I’m
excited for us to get to know one another. So today, I thought I might
tell you a little bit about me and where I come from. Vice president
was never a job I thought about growing up in Kansas. Like a lot of
people in Kansas City, my parents weren’t that into politics – church,
the Kansas City Royals, that’s the kind of thing that we spent time
talking about.
They had too much else going on. My dad ran a union-organized
ironworking shop in the stockyards of Kansas City. And my mom, in
addition to all the challenges of my two brothers and me, she was my
dad’s best saleswoman. That ironworking business was tough. It’s the
kind of job where you can’t cut corners; if you’re not careful, you can
make one mistake and ruin an awful lot of work in an instant. I learned
that working in my dad’s shop. My two brothers and I, we all pitched
in. Sometimes we were scheduled to pitch in and sometimes dad would
just shake us in the morning and say, “I got an order to get out and I
really need you guys today.” I remember once, the last day of summer
vacation, I was so looking forward to sleeping in, and then I felt that
hand on my shoulder at about 6:00 – “I’ve really got to have your help
to get an order out today.” But that’s what families do. We would go
there early, especially in the summer, to try to get the work done
before the day got hot. That’s what families do. That’s what families
do.
My parents, Al and Kathy, and they’re alive and healthy, and they’re
happy today – 81 years old, alive, healthy and happy. They taught me
early lessons that have guided my life: the importance of hard work, of
faith and kindness, of following your dreams. My mom once told me – and
I’ll say this, she wasn’t much of a lecturer, she just kind of liked to
live and then we were supposed to follow the example – but she once
told me this: “Tim, you have to decide whether you want to be right or
you want to do right. If you want to be right, go ahead and be a
pessimist. But if you want to do right, be an optimist.” And folks,
I’ve been an optimist ever since.
I went to a Jesuit boys’ school, Rockhurst High School in Kansas City.
And – alright, some Jesuits in the house. I like that, I like that. The
motto of my school, this boys’ school, was, “Men for others,” and that
was the – that was what we were taught. And that’s where my faith,
which had been important to me because of my parents’ example, really
grew into something more viable. It became like my North Star, the
organizing principle for what I wanted to do – even as a young man
because of these great teachers I had and because of my parents’
example, I knew that I wanted to do something to devote myself to social
justice. And that’s why, after racing through the University of
Missouri in three years and starting at Harvard Law School, I decided to
take a year off from school to volunteer with Jesuit missionaries in
Honduras. Hay hondureños aquí? Hay algunos hondureños aquí? Okay, un
poquito, sí. Well, when I got to Honduras, it turned out that my
recently acquired knowledge of constitutional law was pretty useless.
But the experience of working in my dad’s ironworking shop was actually
kind of helpful. So I taught teenagers the basics of carpentry and
welding, and they helped me learn Spanish. And I tell you, my time in
Honduras changed my life in so many ways. Aprendí los valores de mi
pueblo: fe, familia y trabajo. Fe, familia y trabajo. Los mismos
valores de la comunidad latina aquí en nuestro país, ¿verdad? And
here’s something that really stuck with me. I got a firsthand look at a
system – this was 1980 and ’81 – a dictatorship where a few folks at
the top had all the power, and everybody else got left behind. And it
convinced me that we’ve got to advance opportunity and equality for
everybody, no matter where they come from, how much money they have,
what they look like, what accent they have, or who they love.
And in 1970, a Republican governor of Virginia, Linwood Holton, believed
exactly the same thing. He integrated Virginia’s public schools after
the state had fought for 16 years after Brown v. Board to keep them
segregated. Now, in 1970 in Virginia, that took political courage. And
then he and his wife went even further. They enrolled their own kids,
including their daughter Anne, in integrated schools, and it sent a
strong signal to the people of Virginia that their governor wasn’t going
to back down, wasn’t going to take half steps, or wasn’t going to make
rules for others that he wouldn’t follow for himself.
So many years later, that young girl Anne went to Princeton, went to
Harvard Law School, guided by her experience as a youngster in the first
generation of integrated Virginia schools, and one day in a study group
she met this kind of nerdy guy who had been off teaching kids in
Honduras. Anne and I got married 32 years ago at St. Elizabeth’s
Catholic Church in the Highland Park neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia.
That is the parish that we still belong today. Hey, Saint E’s folks, I
hope you’re watching. We will be there at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Marrying
Anne was and remains the best decision of my life. And it – am I right?
Am I right? And it turns out she actually learned negotiation a lot
better than I did in law school, which is how a Kansas City kid ended up
in Virginia. So Anne and I settled down, we started a family, and we
sent out kids – we sent our kids to those same public schools that her
father had opened up to everybody - including one school that I helped
build when I was mayor that our school board named the Linwood Holton
Elementary School. How cool was it to see our three kids head out the
door with their backpacks on to walk to a neighborhood school named
after their Civil Rights hero grandfather.
Lin’s example helped inspire me to work as a civil rights lawyer
representing people who had been turned away from housing either because
of the color of their skin or because they were an American with a
disability. And this was my civil rights work for 17 years. I brought
dozens of lawsuits when I was in private practice battling banks,
landlords, real estate firms, insurance companies, and even local
governments that had treated people unfairly. In 1998 I won a historic
verdict against a national insurance company because they had been
redlining minority neighborhoods, treating them unfairly in the issuance
of homeowners insurance. At the time I won that case it was the
biggest jury verdict ever in a civil rights case in American history. I
like to fight for right. I like to fight for right.
And I found myself going to city council meetings in Richmond to raise
the issues that I was dealing with every day on behalf of my clients,
but I was frustrated at the division and infighting. So in 1994 I did
something that seemed even crazier than what I’m doing now. I decided to
run for local office. Man, I was so scared the day I announced, but I
wanted to help my city and my community. I knocked on every door in my
district. I won my first race beating an incumbent by 94 votes – the
first of many nail-biters and squeakers I’ve had since then. And as
I’ve often said, if I’m good at anything in public life, it’s good
because I started at the local level listening to people, learning about
their lives, and trying to find consensus to solve problems.
In the years that followed I became mayor of Richmond. I was elected
lieutenant governor of Virginia. And in 2006 I became the 70th governor
of the Commonwealth of Virginia. When we moved – when we moved into
the governor’s mansion after the inauguration, my wife became the only
person who had ever lived there first as a child and then as a an adult.
We had to make tough decisions when I was in office because it was the
deepest recession since the 1930s. But that didn’t stop us from
expanding early childhood education, from building more classrooms and
facilities on our college campuses so more could go to school, because
we knew that education was the key to everything we wanted to achieve as
a state and it’s the key to everything we want to achieve as a nation.
We invested in open space preservation and cleaning up the Chesapeake
Bay because our kids and grandkids deserve to enjoy the beautiful
commonwealth that we love, just like you love the beauty of your
Sunshine state. And we achieved national recognition for our work in
tough times. When I was governor of Virginia, best-managed state in
America, best state for a child to have a successful life, best state
for business, one of the lowest employment rates, one of the highest
bond ratings, one of the highest family incomes. We did that during
tough times.
And so today I am proud to carry that work forward as a Virginia senator
serving on the Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Budget
Committees. They actually just added me to the Aging Committee, too. I
don’t know why they would have done that, would have done that. I’m
proud to support my wife’s public service. She has been a legal aid
lawyer, juvenile court judge, foster care reformer; now she’s Secretary
of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
And Anne and I are both so proud of our great commonwealth and of our
great nation. And isn’t it great already? I mean, isn’t it great
already? What a great country. As I look back over these experiences,
what I’ve learned is that God has created a rich and beautiful tapestry
in this country. It is a rainbow of cultural diversity that embraces
all people – regardless of their race or economic status, regardless of
their religion or their gender, regardless of their sexual orientation
or where they’re from. We’ve got this beautiful country that should be a
country of welcome, that should be a country of inclusion, and I know
that that is a fundamental value that Hillary Clinton shares.
Soy católico, soy católico. I’m a Catholic. And Hillary is a Methodist,
but I tell you, her creed is the same as mine: ‘Do all the good you
can.’ Pretty simple. Do all the good you can. Measure your life by the
positive effect you can have on other people’s lives. Be of service to
one another. Now, that’s a notion that Americans of every faith
tradition and every moral tradition believe in, and it’s a message that
Hillary Clinton has taken to heart for her entire life, for her entire
life.
Fighting for children and families, like when she was First Lady. After
she tried and a recalcitrant congress blocked her in the big advance
that we needed on health care reform, she said you know what, I’m not
stopping; if we can’t get it all, can we pass a program to provide
health insurance to 8 million more American children? And that’s what
she did. And that’s what she did. That’s who she fought for.
Fighting for – fighting for equal rights for African Americans, for
Latinos, for people with disabilities, for LGBT Americans – in the
aftermath of the 9/11 attack, fighting tenaciously to make sure that
9/11 first responders in New York and other localities would get health
benefits. Now, there are an awful lot of people – an awful lot of people
who’ve put their trust and their faith in Hillary, and she’s always –
and she’s always delivered for them, from working with the Children’s
Defense Fund, to first lady of Arkansas, to first lady of the United
States, to senator, to secretary of state, she has always delivered.
And – and you know what? Here’s something you can tell about a great
leader: She not only delivers in the easy times or the simple times,
she delivers in the tough times and she even delivers when she’s on the
receiving end of one attack after another. She never backs down. She
never backs down.
Hillary, whatever the drama, whatever the attack, whatever the
situation, stays focused on what matters: helping people. That’s what
keeps her going. So here’s how Hillary and I are going to continue that
work: with a strong, progressive agenda. We’re going to make the
American economy work for everybody, not just those at the top. Not
just those at the top. And we’ll do that by making the largest
investment in good-paying jobs since World War II. We will make college
debt-free for everybody. We’ll rewrite the rules so that companies share
their profits with workers rather than ship jobs overseas, and we’ll
make sure that Wall Street corporations and the wealthy pay their fair
share of taxes.
And while we’re on the subject of taxes, where are Donald Trump’s tax
returns? Raise your hand if you think those returns would show that
he’s paid his fair share of taxes. Well, I don’t see a lot of – I don’t
see a lot of hands. We’re going to fight for paid family leave, equal
pay for women, and raising the minimum wage to a living wage – to keep
families together – to keep families together and to bring them out of
the shadows. In our administration in the first 100 days, we’ll put
forward a comprehensive immigration reform package that includes a path
to citizenship.
En el senado, hicimos eso hace casi tres años, y estamos esperando
todavía para la casa de representantes tener un debate, un voto, en el
sistema de inmigración reforma, ¿verdad? Entonces, vamos a trabajar
juntos en eso en los primero cien días de la administración.
I will encourage you – if you haven’t done this, go to a naturalization
service where people become U.S. citizens. It is – how many of you –
raise your hand if you have been a naturalized citizen, if you – Yeah.
Well, thanks for choosing us. Thanks for choosing us. If you haven’t
been to one of those services, it’s going to be one of the most powerful
things you’ll ever see. Often, after the oath is taken, there’s an
open mike and people get to just walk up and say, ‘Here’s why I decided
that I wanted to become a citizen of the United States,’ and it will
just bring tears to your eyes and a smile to your face when you hear
what these people think about the greatness of the United States of
America. And when you go to one of these naturalization services and you
see the people’s desire to join this great country, you will – you’ll
basically have this pretty amazing thought: Cualquier persona que ama
tanto a los Estados Unidos merece estar aquí. Anybody who loves America
this much deserves to be here – deserves to be here.
Now, there’s one last part of Hillary’s plan that means a lot to me
personally that – kind of emotional for me, and I bet it’s emotional for
you: how to stem the epidemic of gun violence that kills 33,000
Americans every year. As governor during one of the most horrible
shootings in America’s history, this issue is very close to my heart,
very close to my heart. And I know that many of you here feel exactly
the same way after that tragic shooting in Orlando in June. We can do
better, folks. We can do better.
It was in April of 2007, about halfway through my time as governor – I
had just arrived in Japan on a trade mission to bring jobs back to
Virginia – had checked into the hotel room, had fallen asleep when the
knock came at my door and the head of my security detail said,
‘Governor, you got to turn on the TV. We’re going to get on the phone.
There’s a horrible shooting underway at Virginia Tech,’ this wonderful
college in Blacksburg, Virginia. And as jetlagged as I was and just
arrived, I said, ‘Take me back to the airport. I’m getting the first
plane home.’ It was 14 hours over; it was 14 hours back. And I walked
onto that campus jetlagged and in the wrong time zone, but I knew that
as a leader, even though I didn’t have any magic words to say that would
take away the horror of the tragedy, I had to bring comfort in some way
to the families of those who had been killed, to the students and
professors who had been injured, and also to the first responders who
had been there to help them. This – April 16, 2007 – that was the worst
day of my life. It was the worst day of so many people’s lives, and
for the parents and the loved ones of those kids and professors, that
pain never goes away. Precious 17-year-olds, a 70-plus Lithuanian-born
Holocaust survivor who was a teacher, who could survive the Holocaust,
who could survive the Soviet takeover of his country, but who fell
victim to gun violence because he blocked the door and told his students
to climb out the window as his body was being riddled with bullets.
Survive the Holocaust, survive the Soviet takeover of your country, and
fall victim in Blacksburg, Virginia to the horror of American gun
violence?
So when the vast majority of Americans, and even a majority of NRA
members, agree that we have to adopt commonsense gun safety measures,
Hillary and I will not rest – will not rest. We will not rest – until –
we will not rest. We won’t rest – we won’t rest until we get universal
background checks and close loopholes that put guns in the hands of
criminals, terrorists, and dangerous people who should not have them.
It’s so easy. The American public wants it, gun owners want it, the NRA
members want it. We will not rest.
Now, folks, I know the NRA. Their headquartered in my state, in
Virginia. They campaigned against me in every statewide race that I’ve
ever run, but I’ve never lost an election. I’ve never lost an election.
I don’t mind powerful groups campaigning against me. That just is like
an extra cup of coffee to me, folks. It just gets me more excited. I’m
8 and 0 and I promise you I’m not about to let that change, especially
when Donald Trump stands in the way of progress on every single one of
these issues that Hillary has laid out as core to her campaign, and
many, many more.
So now I’m going to wrap this up with three easy questions. We’re at a
university; I can give you a test, right? I can give a test. These are
three questions to ask yourselves.
One, do you want a ‘you’re fired’ president or a ‘you’re hired’
president? Of course, you want a ‘you’re hired’ president. Donald
Trump is the ‘you’re fired’ guy. That’s what he’s known for, and when
this whole campaign is done and everybody’s forgotten it, the one thing
they will remember about Donald Trump is, ‘You’re fired!’ Bankrupting
companies. Shipping jobs overseas. Stiffing contractors. Being
against federal minimum wage. Being against equal pay for equal work.
He’s the ‘you’re fired’ guy. Hey, we’ve got a ‘you’re hired’ president –
a ‘you’re hired’ president! Let’s do debt-free college so people can
have skills. Let’s build bridges and roads and airports and ports so
people can have jobs. Let’s go for equal pay. Let’s raise the minimum
wage. Let’s bring back the dignity and respect of work. A ‘you’re
hired’ president.
Alright, you’re one for one. Question two: Do you want a trash-talking
president or a bridge-building president?
AUDIENCE: “Bridge-building president!”
TIM KAINE: “Of course you do. Donald Trump trash talks
folks with disabilities, trash talks – trash talks Mexican Americans
and Latinos, whether they’re new immigrants or governors or federal
judges, trash talks women, trash talks our allies, calls the military a
disaster. Oh, you’re right, he doesn’t trash talk everybody – he likes
Vladimir Putin. You’re right. Let’s get that straight. But this is a
bridge-builder president. As a member of the Armed Services Committee,
built great ties with our military and military families. As a
Secretary of State, made history building our relationships around the
world and putting central to U.S. foreign policy the treatment of women
and children around the world. She’s a bridge-builder, and that’s what
we need.
And last – alright, Florida International, you’re two for two, so here’s
number three. Do you want a ‘me first’ president or a ‘kids and
families first’ president?”
AUDIENCE: “Kids and families!”
TIM KAINE: “Of course. With Donald Trump it’s, ‘Me
first. I’m not showing you my tax returns. I’m going to run a
university that will take people’s money and rip them off.’ Donald Trump
was in Britain when they cast the Brexit vote to leave the EU, and as
the British pound, their unit of currency, was getting pummeled, he
said, ‘Hey, this could be good news for my golf course.’ ‘Me first.’
But we’ve got a ‘kids and families first’ president – who from her
earliest days has been – and I’ll tell you something. I’m going to give
you a secret about those of us in politics. If you want to try to
judge the character of somebody in politics, I’ll tell you how to do
it. It’s really simple. Look at their life and see if they have a
passion in their life that they had long before they got into politics, a
passion that’s not about themselves, a passion that’s about somebody
else. And then see if they have held onto that passion through thick or
thin, in good times or bad, whether winning elections or losing
elections, come hell or high water. Look to see if they have a passion
that’s about somebody else, and look to see whether they’ve held onto it
all the time.
And that is character, and that is our “kids and families first” Hillary
Clinton.
All right. When I was a kid growing up, my favorite President was
another Kansas City guy, Harry Truman. Great Democratic President.
Great Democratic President. And let me tell you something that Harry
Truman said that could have been written five minutes ago. He said it
in the late 1940s, and it’s so well put. America was not built on
fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable
determination to do the job at hand.
Let me tell you that one again. That’s so good. America was not built
on fear. America was not built on fear. It was built on courage, on
imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.
Friends, Hillary Clinton – Hillary Clinton is filled with that courage,
that imagination, and that unbeatable determination. And that’s why we
trust her to fight for all Americans. That’s why I’m with her. That’s
why I’m with her. Are you with her? That’s why we’re with her. That’s
why we’re with her. These are tough times for many in our country, but
we’re tough people. And that’s something else I learned from my folks:
Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.
And they don’t come any tougher or any more compassionate than Hillary
Clinton. So let’s go make history and elect Hillary Clinton the 45th
president of the United States!”
