In a very funny moment on the floor of the United States Senate that took place on Tuesday, January 28, failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s similarly failed Vice Presidential candidate, Tim Kaine, now a US Senator from Virginia, had a wild meltdown in which he ranted and raved over President Donald Trump’s efforts to drain the swamp.
Namely, Kaine was upset over an effort by the Trump Administration to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy, which is notoriously difficult to trim down thanks to federal worker protection laws. That effort consisted of an email asking employees if they would like a buyout now in exchange for resigning rather than continuing to collect a paycheck. Employees who take the deal will leave now and be paid and on government benefits until September.
The email, after noting that employees just had to reply to the email and say “Resign” in the subject line of the reply, would have to actually work if they stayed. It noted they’d need to return to office, work hard, and follow the president’s orders, then said, “If you choose to remain in your current position, we thank you for your renewed focus on serving the American people to the best of your abilities and look forward to working together as part of an improved federal workforce. At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions.”
It also said, giving a timeline for those who want to leave, “If you choose not to continue in your current role in the federal workforce, we thank you for your service to your country and you will be provided with a dignified, fair departure from the federal government utilizing a deferred resignation program. This program begins effective January 28 and is available to all federal employees until February 6. If you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason). The details of this separation plan can be found below.”
Sen. Kaine lost his mind over the offer. Raving on the floor of the Senate, he first claimed that Trump has no authority do deal with employees in such a manner, saying, “The president has no authority to make that offer. There’s no budget line item to pay people who are not showing up for work.”
Then, attacking Trump’s business practices, he said, “This is a guy who made this promise to contractors again and again and again when he was a private business guy. ‘Oh, come work for me on my casino.’ ‘Come work for me in a hotel.’ ‘We’re going to do a handshake. We’re going to do a contract.’ The contractor does the work. and then finds out they get stiffed.”
He then demanded federal employees not take his offer, saying, “So my message to federal employees who receive this is, yeah, the president has tried to terrorize you for about a week and then gives you a little sweetheart offer: ‘If you resign in the next week, we’re just going to pay you for doing nothing for the next seven months.’ Don’t be fooled. He’s tricked hundreds of people with that offer. If you accept that offer and resign, he’ll stiff you just like he stiffed the contractors. He doesn’t have any authority to do this. Do not be fooled by this guy.”
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He continued by saying, “You were here before he was here, and you’ll be here after he was here. Show up for work. Be diligent. Serve Americans every day. Make their life better. Answer their phone call. Give them an answer. Track down their constituent call. Don’t be fooled by a fake offer because he’s terrorized you in the last week, it would be easy to just resign now and get a check for seven months. Because I can tell you, that promise is worth nothing.”
Watch him here:
Tim Kaine tells federal employees to ignore Trump’s offer to quit w/ pay for months. “Don’t be fooled. He’s tricked hundreds of people w/ that offer. If you accept that offer & resign he’ll stiff you just like he stiffed the contractors. He doesn’t have any authority to do this.” pic.twitter.com/iQI3a8grRG
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 29, 2025
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video