On Sunday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine slammed Donald Trump for his comments encouraging Russia to continue hacking into Hillary Clinton’s emails. In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” Kaine even suggested that Trump’s behavior shared similarities with former President Richard Nixon’s illegal activity before he was forced to resign in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
“He has openly encouraged Russia to engage in cyberhacking to try to find more emails or materials, and we know that this cyberattack on the D.N.C. was likely done by Russia,” stated Kaine, adding:
A president was impeached and had to resign over an attack on the D.N.C. during a presidential election in 1972. This is serious business. So contrast the Hillary situation, where the F.B.I. said there’s no need for legal proceedings, with an attack that is being encouraged by Donald Trump on the D.N.C. by Russia, similar to what led to resignation of a president 30 years ago.
Kaine was specifically referring to Trump’s comments from nearly two months ago, in which he called on Russia to dig into Clinton’s mysterious emails.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said at a July press conference. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Dismissing the fallout from his running mate’s own egregious behavior as Secretary of State, Kaine used the interview with ABC to redirect attention away from the bad press following the FBI’s pre-Labor Day Friday dump of notes from its interview with Hillary Clinton.
The FBI’s notes revealed startling details about Clinton’s hazy recollection of her tenure as Secretary of State. The interview was not conducted under oath, allowing the Democratic nominee more wiggle room to bullsh*t her way out of an indictment. At one point, Clinton actually said she didn’t know that the letter “c” referred to classified materials.
A loyal ally, Kaine refused to engage in discussion about these shocking revelations. Rather, he spent most of the interview discussing Trump’s taxes and July comments about Russia.