Tim Kaine kept returning to one telling word Sunday. Hillary Clinton’s running mate appeared on ABC News’s This Week and was on-message responding to Friday’s news that FBI director James Comey is looking at a new source of emails in Clinton’s home-brew server scandal. “This is an unprecedented move,” Kaine told George Stephanopoulos, “because it happens close to an election, which is in violation of normal Justice Department protocol.” Not just that but “it involves talking about an ongoing investigation, which also violates the protocol.”

Protocol, protocol, protocol: Kaine was all about protocol. The FBI director owed the American public “full information” because he “violated these two protocols.” The most fundamental issue, the vice presidential candidate said, is whether Comey is “following established protocols for a law enforcement investigation.” And just in case it wasn’t clear enough, Kaine said “Following established protocols and rules is what you would expect from a chief law enforcement official.”