In what was surely an unintentionally funny, but funny nonetheless, moment on CNN, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), better known as failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s failed Vice Presidential running mate, was pressed by host Jake Tapper on why the public doesn’t like his party. That moment occurred on Sunday, February 2, on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Broaching the subject, CNN host Jake Tapper asked Kaine, “Why is your party so staggeringly unpopular with the public?” He was referencing, with that question, a recent poll from Quinnipiac. The poll found that a mere 31% of Americans view the Democratic Party favorably. Further, it found a whopping 57% have an unfavorable view of it.
Kaine, funnily, got mad at Tapper when pressed on his party’s stunning unpopularity. Responding, he insisted that Democrats are popular by pointing to Virginia, a state dominated by the millions of DC Swamp Creatures who live in Northern Virginia and have turned the once red state a deep blue. Sen. Kaine didn’t appear to reflect on the absurdity of his response.
Making that point and using his bureaucracy-ridden state as an example, Sen. Kaine snapped, obviously annoyed at first and then fishing an incredibly fake smile, “Jake, you know me. I’m a Virginian. I know one state well and not so well the other 49. In Virginia, we’ve gone from one of the most ruby red states in the country to now having put electoral votes behind Democrats five elections in a row.”
Continuing, he further ignored the NoVa issue and pointed to “the economy” as the reason why he won, saying, “I just won my reelection by a sizable margin against Donald Trump‘s hand-picked Republican opponent. And I’ll tell you how we’ve done it. We focus on the economy. This is what we do in Virginia. And I think sometimes national Democrats don’t.”
Still showing no sense whatsoever of reflection about why the Democrats are strong in Virginia due to DC demographics, he went on about the economy, saying that “forestry” helps the Democrats. He said, “On the Democratic side in Virginia, and I think we can do this nationally. We talk about make, build, grow. We want to make it here. We want to build it here. And in Ag[riculture]. And forestry, we want to grow it here. And the Dems have the results to back it up.”
Continuing with that same message, Kaine told Tapper, “It‘s just that so often Democratic candidates don‘t emphasize that. And so yeah, the American public looks at standard campaigns. They don‘t see Democrats advertising on the economy, which is their principal concern, and so they have wonders about us.”
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Then, Sen. Kaine tried telling Tapper that what the Democrats need is a return to the “bread and butter basics.” Tapper pushed back on that, saying, “I don’t want to get too in the weeds of Virginia politics, but your governor is a Republican, and he beat handily a former Democratic governor when he ran for that position.”
Kaine snapped, obviously angry that Youngkin’s victory was broached, “By 1.8%.” He continued, “The last two Republicans that won the governorship in Virginia won by comfortable double digits. Our governor is a Republican. He ran during a very good year to be a Republican, and he won, barely.” He then added, “I think the governor’s race in Virginia, November 2025, will be the first bellwether test of a Democratic comeback. And I’m feeling really, really good about that right now.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video