Sen. Tim Kaine to MSNBC: “Ripping The Party Apart? I Think You’re Overdramatizing This”
Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine dismissed a question from MSNBC’s Katy Tur about whether his decision to vote with the Republicans to reopen the government could be “ripping the party apart.” “I think you’re overdramatizing this. I mean, I know the news business is to try to make everything the biggest crisis since the Cuban Missile Crisis or something,” Kaine quipped.
KATY TUR: It doesn’t seem like some of the party’s just angry about this – it seems like this is ripping the party apart at a time when it felt like the party was coming back together post-elections. How do you convince your fellow Democrats to stay together on this, and how do you convince voters across the country to believe in the Democrats? SENATOR TIM KAINE: Again – can I just say – ripping the party apart? I think you’re overdramatizing this. I mean, I know the news business is to try to make everything like the biggest crisis. TUR: Hold on – don’t say it’s me- KAINE: We have differences of opinion. TUR: I will quote your fellow Democrats. Gavin Newsom calls it pathetic. Hakeem Jeffries says it’s complete B.S. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says this is not about a base of voters – this is about people’s lives. Chris Murphy says it makes Donald Trump stronger: This is a moment that demands fighters, not folders. I mean, this is me quoting Democrats. I’m not making things up, you know? KAINE: You could have read the same quotes last month, a month ago, a month before that. Will Rogers said 100 years ago, I don’t believe in organized politics – that’s why I’m a Democrat. We’re a big tent. We have different points of view. I’ve been doing this for 31 years – this is by far, by far, a minor-league issue within the Democratic Party. We’re going to unify around having the health care fight within a month, and people are going to see where Democrats are and where Republicans are. And I’ll be glad to come back and talk to you about it once we’ve done that. TUR: And I’m always happy to have you, and I appreciate where you are. I think there’s a discussion to be had about these specific people who are making this deal. You guys are moderates – a lot of you are former governors. There’s an independent, and others from states that voted for Donald Trump and Joe Biden, so they can be swing states. So I wonder if you’re reading something that the rest of the Democratic Party isn’t about where this country is. KAINE: Again, I’m a Virginia senator – I know where Virginians are. Three hundred twenty thousand federal employees. If you add up our federal employees, contractors, and their families, it’s probably north of a million. Eight hundred thousand Virginians on SNAP benefits. Three to four hundred thousand have health insurance on the exchange. We’ve now protected the SNAP recipients – our most vulnerable – and we’ve got a path to at least find a fix on the ACA tax credits that we didn’t have until we reopened government. So it’s up to us to go make our case. It’s up to Republicans now to grapple with whether they want to fix the health care needs of their constituents or not.
