CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript Interview with Tim Kaine

Interview

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OK. So Senator ...

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): Hey, Erin.

BURNETT: ... OK. I'm sorry, we got you back. I wasn't sure whether I was going to have to have an unexpected commercial break there, OK. Let me just ask you, I don't know if you heard my quote, but Trump was saying they're only trying to change the rules because their guy got pummeled and they're now trying to work the refs, what's your response to that?

KAINE: Look, President Trump showed three things. First, as a president he can't be presidential, the challenger looked like the President and Trump looked like the desperate challenger, which was completely bizarre. Second, he, as a sitting president, said he wouldn't accept the outcome of an election if he was unhappy with the results.

I lived in a military dictatorship in Honduras 40 years ago. That's a dictator behavior, not democracy behavior. And third, as you guys have covered well with Congressman Clyburn, he wouldn't condemn white supremacy, which we painfully know in Virginia because it was the same stunt that he pulled after the horrific killing of Heather Heyer and two-state troopers in Charlottesville on August 2017.

BURNETT: So one thing that set last night's debate apart, there were many things, but there was name-calling and it was nasty. I was watching with my young children at one point having a conversation about how grownups could be acting like that, right?

KAINE: Yes.

[19:25:03]

BURNETT: And some of them did come from Joe Biden. Here's a couple of examples.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Folks, do you have any idea what this clown is doing?

TRUMP: (Inaudible) ...

BIDEN: Will you shut up, man?

TRUMP: (Inaudible) ...

BIDEN: You're the worst president America has ever had, come on.

TRUMP: Hey, Joe, let me ...

BIDEN: It's hard to get any wording with this clown. Excuse me, (inaudible) ...

TRUMP: And let me just say, Joe ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Senator, that sort of trying to get in it with him did not work, it didn't work for Marco Rubio, remember the hands, they tried to handle that, Ted Cruz, it didn't work to get into the mud. Would you tell Biden to keep doing that or to pull that back?

KAINE: Erin, when you're debating against somebody who will break every rule no matter what they are and then just lie repeatedly, that is so tough. I mean, I know this, when you debate with somebody who can just look in the camera and lie, it's really hard. I thought Joe did a pretty good job in terms of kind of what a human can do in often rising above it and kind of shaking his head and laughing it off.

But then at some point, you just can't let the blows land on your chin and not respond. And look and some of that was very sincere. You're the worst president we've had. There's a lot of evidence 200,000 plus deaths, millions of jobs lost, social division that we haven't seen since the 1960s. There's a lot of evidence for that proposition. It's a painful truth, but it doesn't mean it's not a true statement.

BURNETT: So next, we're obviously going to see the vice presidential debate coming up and you, of course, debated Vice President Mike Pence.

KAINE: Yes.

BURNETT: And I remember being there for that. Have you spoken to Kamala Harris yet and what are you going to tell her about debating Mike Pence, who is a very different, very professional debater?

KAINE: Erin, Mike Pence was a media personality for many years before he was in politics. He's good at this. So I'm not going to tell you what I'm telling Kamala, but I will just lay out a reality about this debate. In 2016, remember, both tickets neither were incumbents.

So Hillary and Donald were both saying, OK, we're not president but here's what we'll do. So it was largely a campaign about here's what we want to do. But this is a different year 2020, the Trump-Pence ticket, they're incumbents. So a lot of the debate is about what have you done.

Remember, on February 26th, Donald Trump asked Mike Pence to take on the most important job of his life, running the American response to coronavirus, being ahead of the task force. At that time, there had been no deaths in the United States, 200,000 deaths later, I think you're going to see a prosecutor and Kamala Harris, but the evidence on the table. Are you really saying that 200,000 plus deaths is a good response, millions of jobs lost or a good response, social unrest, that's a positive?

And so I think what you'll see in this debate, which was very different than four years ago, is an incumbent ticket is asking to return and the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket is saying are you better off than you were four years ago? I mean, the answer is clearly no.

BURNETT: All right. Sen. Kaine, I thank you for your time tonight.

KAINE: Absolutely, Erin. Good to be with you.

BURNETT: All right. You too.

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