CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript Interview with Tim Kaine

Interview

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KEILAR: And Senator, that's where you come in, which I want to talk about in just a moment. But you heard what the president said, and I want to ask you about that.

Because on this program, we've talked a lot about military suicide, and one of the things that we've discovered in our coverage is that actually one of the factors that can contribute to PTSD and suicide risk is when a conflict is politicized. And this fight against coronavirus is becoming politicized.

I think you're familiar with this, you're a Blue Star father. So what is your reaction when you hear the president making this distinction between blue states and red states?

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): Well, I could hardly believe it, Brianna, when I heard it yesterday. And I thought of Abraham Lincoln's favorite quote -- one of his most powerful -- "A house divided against itself shall not stand," that he said on the eve of the Civil War. We can't be divided against one another.

Lorna Breen was a healer who was trying to heal us. And most presidents try to be healers, they try to make sure we're not divided, one against another. But when President Trump said basically, if you just didn't count all the deaths in blue states, we'd be doing great?

You cannot write off tens of thousands of deaths that easily. You cannot write off people getting sick and losing their jobs or worrying about the health of their spouse or children that easily. There's never been a president in the history of this country whose instinct at a time like this was not to try to bring us together -- with the exception of Donald J. Trump, who continually goes back and tries to divide us in the ways that Lincoln warned we should not fall for.

KEILAR: And so what is your effort going to be, Senator Kaine?

KAINE: Well, it's -- you know, on (ph) this one, now, here's something we can agree on. The -- I introduced the Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act after I heard this story about Lorna. And every time I hear it, I have the same emotional reaction as if I had heard it 30 seconds ago, this delightful, powerful, accomplished physician doing all she could to help people out, and then being confronted with death and illness at an unimaginable scale.

And yet what she was worried about -- second only to trying to take care of patients -- was what if my colleagues think I'm suffering from any kind of a mental illness or depression or anxiety? I could lose my job. I could lose my credentials to be able to practice medicine.

And it's just an unbelievable tragedy, that people who are doing this frontline work labor under stigma, and even under regulations and rules that might cost them their livelihood if they just acknowledged that they need help.

And so when Jennifer and Corey came to me and we started to talk -- because they're Virginians -- we decided that we had to do better. And the good news is, this is bipartisan: Bill Cassidy, a Republican physician, senator from Louisiana; Todd Young, Republican of Indiana; Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island. We've put together a bill in Lorna's honor to basically establish grants to train health professionals to allow hospitals to do training of their employees, to do research, to gather best practices and do a public education campaign so that we can start to break down the stigma around mental health issues within the profession so that we can take care of our healers.

We say they're our heroes, but we ought to treat them like heroes and care for them when they are in challenging circumstances like they are now.

KEILAR: Yes. And Jennifer and Corey, these are incredibly challenging circumstances. They're very much in sort of a war footing, and they are heroes, as the senator said. They're the walking wounded too, as they're going through all of this.

And it's -- I think with the whole nation in the middle of this, it might be kind of easy to underestimate or not fully grasp the trauma of what we are asking of our doctors and our health care workers. What do you think is going to be the long-term impact on the medical community?

[14:25:11]

COREY FEIST, BROTHER-IN-LAW OF LORNA BREEN: So we founded the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation to do two key things. One is to reduce the stigma associated with seeking mental health care, that's got to change.

The culture of medicine has to stop thinking that pushing down the difficulties that physicians observe and feel every day is a courageous act. And rather, they need to ask for help, and for that to be viewed as an act of courage in and of itself.

The second thing we're doing is, we're trying to fund research and other kinds of programs to help reduce the health care professional burnout and improve their wellbeing.

Folks can find out more about what we're doing at DrLornaBreen.org. And today, we've launched the hashtag #StandWithLorna to try to help build this community of support for all of our health care heroes. Because before they were heroes, they were humans. And we need to remember that, first and foremost.

KEILAR: And Jennifer, I just -- I want to give a final word to you, as you're doing this in honor of your sister. What do you want the medical community to take away?

J. FEIST: Thank you, Brianna. I want the medical community to know that we see you, we hear you, we have been contacted by so many people who said this happened to me, and I had to hide it, had to keep it a secret and I was ashamed.

And we are here to say, there's no more shame, there's no embarrassment. You guys are out there saving us every day, and we are coming to help you and we stand with you, just like we stand with my sister. Thank you.

KEILAR: Jennifer, Corey, Senator, thank you so much to all of you.

KAINE: Thank you, Brianna. Honor to --

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C. FEIST: Thank you.

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