Vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., declared Donald Trump and Mike Pence “unpatriotic” Friday, building on his running mate’s earlier criticism of the Republican ticket’s praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“[If] you want to go around praising a dictator, you need to be called out as unpatriotic,” the senator said at a campaign stop in Norfolk, Va.
Trump raised eyebrows during a presidential forum Wednesday evening by saying the Russian president is a stronger leader than President Obama.
The GOP nominee’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, followed suit, and claimed this week that “it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country.”
“And that’s going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes president,” Pence said.
On Friday, Kaine said it’s time someone call the Republican ticket out for being “unpatriotic.”
“[The] irrational hostility toward President Obama, which started the very first day of his term from some of these people, is unpatriotic and we got to call it out,” the Virginia senator told his audience, adding that Trump and Pence’s “unusual fascination” with Putin is “almost surreal.”
Kaine turned his attention specifically to the idea that Putin is a strong and effective leader.
“If you are going to pick somebody to praise for leadership,” he began, “Vladimir Putin has run the Russian economy into the ground. People are suffering there because of his mismanagement of the economy. Vladimir Putin persecutes, punishes and has even been connected to the killing of journalists.”
“Vladimir Putin is among the global leaders of people who really persecute people who are LGBT. Vladimir Putin violates international law by going into other nations like the Ukraine or Georgia.
“I mean, and you think this is leadership?” he asked.
As Kaine spoke, the crowd in Virginia grew louder and more appreciative, clapping for the senator and booing for Trump.
“Apparently that’s what Donald Trump thinks, and apparently that’s what Mike Pence thinks. But I tell you this: If you can’t tell the difference between leadership and dictatorship, you wouldn’t have passed a fifth grade civics exam,” the senator said to applause.
“You shouldn’t be a president of the United States. Dictatorship is not leadership. Tyranny is not leadership. Persecution is not leadership. Tanking your economy is not leadership. And if you look at that and you see something you like, then you’re no leader either,” he said.
Earlier that same afternoon, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton said she was disappointed to hear Pence and Trump hail Putin’s supposed leadership qualities.
