Kaine draws sharp contrast between Clinton and Trump at GMU rally

Tim Kaine speaks at a rally at George Mason University Nov. 7. At the left: Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden,  and Kaine’s wife Anne Holton.

“We’ve got to win Virginia, and you are the key,” Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine told supporters at a rally at George Mason University on the eve of Election Day.

Joined by Vice President Joe Biden, Rep. Gerry Connolly, Sen. Mark Warner, Rep. Don Beyer, and Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring among others, Sen. Kaine urged the crowd, many of whom were GMU students, to spend the last few hours before the polls closed doing whatever they can to get out the vote.

Kaine stressed the differences between Hillary Clinton, a lifelong supporter of equality, and Republican candidate Donald Trump, whose campaign he called “a non-stop insult fest.” [Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence spoke at GMU Nov. 5, urging Republicans “to make sure Hillary Clinton is never elected President of the United States.”]

Biden

Clinton is motivated by a vision that “we are stronger together, with everybody equal and everybody at the table,” Kaine said.

“The only way we ever run into problems,” he said, “is if we start pushing people away because of the color of their skin or where their family came from or what their sexual orientation is or what their gender or religion is.”

Trump has a different viewpoint, Kaine said. “He started off his quest for political significance by perpetrating for five years the bigoted lie that President Obama was a U.S. citizen. He started off his campaign by saying in his first speech that Mexican American immigrants were rapists and criminals.”

Kaine reviewed the insults hurled by Trump during the past few months – “Going after immigrants; going after Muslims; horrible things about women; rolling back LBGT equality; going after John McCain, a POW, saying he wasn’t a hero because he was captured; going after the beautiful Virginia family whose son, Humayun Khan, was killed trying to save the lives of others.” When the Khan’s challenged Donald Trump, “he attacked them. What kind of a person does that?”

“Our nation is dedicated to that proposition that we’re equal,” Kaine said. “And when it comes to vision, Hillary embraces that. Donald Trump wants to take us in a different direction. That’s what is at stake in the election.”

Clinton and Kaine “tried to make this campaign about ideas, as an election is supposed to be,” Biden said. “But it’s no secret that Donald Trump has made this one of the ugliest, most divisive campaigns in the history of this nation.”

Biden called for efforts to unify the nation after the election. “We can’t let this go on,” he said. “We have an obligation and responsibility not only to vote but just as importantly to bring this country together.”

Some Trump supporters are motivated by bigotry, but for others it’s about the economy. “A lot of people feel left out,” Biden said. “We’re got to stop being blinded by anger. We’ve got to start seeing each other again.”

“We are strongest when we act as one America,” he said. “When we come together, there is nothing that can stop us.”