NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Tim Kaine
Interview
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CHUCK TODD:
And joining me now from the other side of the aisle and from Richmond is Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. Welcome back to Meet the Press. And Senator, I'm going to start with this.
SEN.TIM KAINE:
Thanks, Chuck.
CHUCK TODD:
Why are you guys not here, okay? Why aren't you in Washington this weekend, trying to force a, force a way to open up this government?
SEN. TIM KAINE:
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Well, Chuck, we are trying to work a deal over the weekend to open the government. But I'll tell you why we're not here. I objected to adjourning in the Senate on Thursday. Because I have been talking to all of these victims of the Trump shutdown. It was President Trump who said he would be proud to shutdown the government, that it would be on him. He's done that, and people are hurting, worried about missing mortgage payments, having to reschedule medical appointments. So I objected to the adjournment on Friday, Thursday, which is very, very rare. And then I ended up working a deal with the majority leader where we would be in Friday, the day on which people missed their paychecks, the day on which the shutdown became tied for the longest ever. And the Republicans agreed to fast track and pass my guarantee of back pay. I was a co-sponsor of a bill to guarantee back pay for every federal worker. We got it passed, unanimously, in the Senate. President Trump has agreed to sign it. The House passed it Friday morning. So I think we should be in. But I was able to get the Senate and the House to act to protect our federal employees. And I've been on the phone all day yesterday, and I'm going to be on the phone today, with Republican colleagues trying to find that path so we can reopen government.
CHUCK TODD:
Is it time to give the president something here? Let me put, let me put up a quote here from your, from the Virginia delegation. Abigail Spanberger, who just won from a district that President Trump carried. And she, she said this. "If I am getting comments and contact from my constituents expressing concern that the Democrats are not prioritizing security, then I think we can do better." She's, obviously, concerned that it looks like the Democrats aren't for any border security. Do Democrats have to meet the president somewhere north of where they are now?
SEN. TIM KAINE:
Chuck, the willingness of Democrats to invest billions of dollars in border security is not in doubt. In 2013, we did a bill in the Senate that Ted Cruz voted against that was going to invest $40-plus billion over ten years. Cruz voted against it. House Republicans killed it. Democrats support border security. In February of this year, we took a deal to the president, $25 billion in border security. 46 out of 49 Dems voted for it. Senator Cruz voted against it. President Trump killed the deal. At the end of December, we reached a deal with the Republicans, ample border security funding that they supported in committee and on the floor. We supported it just three weeks ago. But when President Trump put out a tweet, suggesting he didn't like it, now, Republicans have fled for the hills. Democrats invest, over and over and over again, in border security. Just this week, Republicans, led by Lindsey Graham, tried to negotiate a deal of border security, and President Trump blew up the negotiations. This is a guy who has prayed for a shutdown. And get this, Chuck, who is he injuring? We've got 13,000 F.B.I. agents, more than 10,000 Bureau of Prison prison guards, air traffic controllers, Coast Guard folks, who interdict drugs, all of them working without pay, because of this president's shutdown. And yet, he says he cares about national security, when he's taking paychecks away from hardworking public safety professionals? It makes no sense. All that has to happen is the Republicans have to be willing to vote the way they did just three weeks ago, open up government. And then we'll dialogue about border security.
CHUCK TODD:
It does sound like, though, you're willing to support some fencing, barriers, if they call it something else, if it reopens the government.
SEN. TIM KAINE:
I will say this. We first should reopen government. Why punish people who are applying for food stamps, because the president is having a temper tantrum? Open government first. But Democrats have always been willing to invest in border security. Chuck, all we want to do is make sure that it's spent the right way. Drugs come in through ports of entry. Let's beef up ports of entry. The biggest group of undocumented people in the country come in on legal visas and overstay. If you build a million-foot wall, it won't deal with that problem. What we don't want to do is waste taxpayer money on a vanity project that's ineffective, that the president said Mexico would pay for. But spending massive amounts on border security to keep us safe, Dems do it over and over again, and it's been Republicans that have been blocking it.
CHUCK TODD:
Senator, on the campaign trail in 2016, you spent the last two months regularly questioning the president, at that time candidate, Donald Trump's ties to Vladimir Putin, complimentary ways he talked about things. So you have those questions that you had, as a candidate. Now, you have this story in the New York Times that has the F.B.I. worried that the president acted on Comey at the behest of the Russian government. What does that tell you where things are now? Does that mean that Democrats should be looking at actually beginning impeachment proceedings? Or is this something you think, "Let the Mueller probe go first"? How much more do you need to know?
SEN. TIM KAINE:
Yeah, Chuck, it's got -- we've got to protect the Mueller investigation. You're right, I was very worried about this, you know, in 2016 because the president took a public stage in July and encouraged Russia to cyber hack the election, at the same time as my son and his entire battalion were deployed helping allies on the border of Russia protect themselves against Russian aggression. I found that highly unusual for any American, much less somebody who wanted to be president. But now, what we have is, you know, more -- nearly 100 documented instances of ties between the Trump campaign, transition and administration with Russia, bizarre failure to be honest about meetings, and now this indication that President Trump has gone to unusual lengths to hide the content of discussions with Vladimir Putin. But the right answer is, as you suggest, it is to protect the Mueller investigation at all costs, let it get to its end, make sure that the results are made public, so then can we decide.
CHUCK TODD:
Are you at all concerned -- are you at all concerned though, that the F.B.I. look like it overreacted in trying to investigate a sitting president this way? I mean, this is a pretty alarming investigation, that the sitting president was acting against the interests of, of, of the United States of America.
SEN. TIM KAINE:
Well, I flip the question around, Chuck. I think it's less, "Did the F.B.I. overreact?" I think the question is this. They had to have a very deep level of concern about this president to take this step. And that's, again, why we need to protect the Mueller investigation. And I think that's going to be a critical issue in the Judiciary Committee hearings about the attorney general nominee. Will you guarantee to protect this investigation? And will you make sure that the American public and Congress get the results of it?
CHUCK TODD:
Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat from Virginia, I have to let you go there. Thanks for coming on and sharing your view, sir. I appreciate it.
SEN. TIM KAINE:
Absolutely.
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