Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., on Thursday accused retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President-elect Trump’s incoming national security adviser, of being either “highly gullible” or unable to determine what is fact or fiction by pushing conspiracy theories about Democrats.
Kaine made the remarks to CNN Thursday at the tail end of the 114th Congress, and took on both Flynn and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who Trump wants to take over as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Gen. Flynn’s trafficking in conspiracy stories that a fourth grader would find incredible suggests either that he’s highly gullible or that he’s so consumed with malice that he loses his ability to judge what is fact and what is fiction,” Kaine said about Flynn, who has come under attack for spreading “fake news.”
Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn, Jr., was let go of Trump’s transition team after spreading misleading information about “pizzagate” in the wake of a shooting at Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington, D.C.
Kaine, who was the Democratic nominee for vice president this year, also touched on Pruitt, who he said worries him because he is a “climate science denier.”
“I don’t mind having an EPA critic,” Kaine said about Pruitt. “That is not my concern. He’s a climate science denier. And that causes me great concern because if there’s any agency of the federal government that virtually every decision they make is a decision that’s based on science.”
