TRANSCRIPT: Tim Kaine accepts VP nomination, running with Hillary Clinton
“Hey, guys, thank you! Hello, Miami! Hello, FIU! ¡Y bienvenidos a todos! ¡Bienvenidos a todos en nuestra país, verdad, porque somos americanos todos! I’m feeling a lot of things today, most of all gratitude. I’m grateful to you, Hillary, for the trust that you’ve placed in me, and we’re going to be compañeros de alma in this great lucha ahead.
I’m grateful to the country which has given me so much. I’m grateful to all of you Floridians, my Virginians, all Americans who’ve poured their hearts into this wonderful, wonderful campaign. And today, like every day, I’m especially grateful to my wife Anne – I love you, honey. I love you, honey – and to three beautiful kids, Nat, Woody, and Annella. I am the luckiest dad and the luckiest husband in the world.
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This is quite a week for me. And believe it or not, for as powerful as it is to become Hillary Clinton’s running mate, that’s not the only thing on my mind this week. Anne and I have three kids. Our oldest son Nat is here today with his fiancée. He’s a proud Marine. And in just a few days, he’s deploying to Europe to uphold America’s commitment to our NATO allies. For me, this drives home the stakes in this election. Nearly two million men and women put their lives on the line for this country as active duty, as reservists, as guard members. They deserve a commander-in-chief with the experience and the temperament to lead.
What does Donald Trump say about these great Americans, these two millions? He repeatedly calls the American military ‘a disaster.’ And just this week Donald Trump said that as president, he’d consider turning America’s back on our decades-old commitments to our allies. And all of you remember a few months ago when he said about a Senate colleague of then-Senator Clinton’s and mine, John McCain, that he wasn’t a hero because he had been captured and served as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. And he wants to be commander-in-chief? While our service members are out there on the front lines, Trump’s saying he’d leave our allies at the mercy of an increasingly aggressive Russia, and folks, that’s an open invitation to Vladimir Putin to just roll on in. Even a lot of Republicans say that that’s terribly dangerous. When you –“
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “[…] crazy.”
TIM KAINE: “Alright, I’m hiring for the speechwriting team. That – We’ve seen again and again that when Donald Trump says he has your back, you’d better watch out. From Atlantic City to his so-called university, he leaves a trail of broken promises and wrecked lives wherever he goes. We can’t afford to let him do the same thing to our country. And folks, we don’t have to – because Hillary Clinton is the direct opposite of Donald Trump.”
AUDIENCE: “Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!”
TIM KAINE: “Hillary Clinton, she doesn’t insult people, she listens to them. What a novel concept, right? She doesn’t trash our allies, she respects them. And she’ll always have our backs – that is something I am rock-solid sure of. I know that because Hillary knows that we’re stronger together; we’re stronger when we work together, when we grow together, when we pull together, when we live in the same neighborhood and worship together and go to school together. When we’re together, we’re stronger.
So I could not be any more honored to stand by Hillary’s side in this very important campaign.”
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “We love you both!”
