Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine has encouraged members of the media to challenge the “truthfulness” of Donald Trump’s claims during the first debate on Monday, but said it’s only fair for them to do the same with Hillary Clinton.
While the Clinton campaign has worked hard to convince Americans that Trump will likely get away with making untruthful statements during the debate, Kaine said both candidates should be aggressively fact-checked.
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“Look, it’s fair game for, for both candidates to be challenged either on things that they’ve said or things that they say tomorrow night,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee told CBS’ John Dickerson.
“I think the great virtue of these debates is you get 90 minutes to look at people and really see whether there’s depth, whether there’s substance and whether there’s candor and truthfulness in what they say,” he added.
In a 90-minute debate, Kaine said there is a “real opportunity” for the candidates and members of the media to perform fact-checking in real time.
“Obviously, let it be an even standard for both,” he said.
Both Trump and Clinton have suffered from historically low honesty ratings. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last week found that only 31 percent of voters believe Clinton is “honest and straightforward,” while 41 percent said the same of Trump.
