PHILADELPHIA — The GOP was ready with a rebuttal to Friday’s news that Hillary Clinton has picked Tim Kaine to serve as her running mate at the top of the Democratic ticket.
“Tim Kaine does nothing to unify a fractured Democrat base which is repelled by her dishonesty and cronyism,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said. “After spending last week pandering to grassroots Democrats with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton has chosen someone who holds positions that she’s spent the entire primary trying to get to the left of.”
Kaine, a U.S. senator representing Virginia is considered a safe and strategic pick for Clinton. Kaine won a statewide race twice in Virginia, a key swing state, and is considered a moderate Democrat who might be able to attract blue collar and independent voters across the country. Kaine opposes abortion, but is against government regulation of the procedure. He was elected governor in 2006 and won his senate seat in 2012. Kaine has been critical of Obama’s decision to send hundreds of U.S. military advisers to the Middle East and has argued for a new bill authorizing the president’s use of military force overseas.
Priebus said a Clinton-Kaine ticket, “will push our country further down the path President Obama has led us on and that has made us less safe, less prosperous, and less free. More taxes, more debt, more government and more leading from behind on the global stage will not deliver the turnaround our country desperately needs.”
Clinton’s pick was revealed days before the Democratic National Convention convenes here beginning Monday.
