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Clinton
says
veep
pick
Kaine is
everything
GOP
ticket
isn't
By KEN
THOMAS
and LISA
LERER
Associated
Press
MIAMI -
Hillary
Clinton
debuted
running
mate
Sen. Tim
Kaine on
Saturday
as a
can-do
progressive
committed
to
social
justice
and
equality
-
"everything
Donald
Trump
and Mike
Pence
are not"
- at a
boisterous
rally
ahead of
next
week's
Democratic
National
Convention.
"He is
qualified
to step
into
this job
and lead
from Day
One. And
he is a
progressive
who
likes to
get
things
done,"
Clinton
declared
at
Florida
International
University.
Kaine, a
bilingual
former
Virginia
governor,
detailed
his life
in
public
service.
"I like
to fight
for
right,"
he said.
And, as
Clinton
smiled
broadly
at her
choice
for vice
president,
Kaine
greeted
the
largely
Hispanic
audience
in
Spanish.
"We're
going to
be 'compañeros
de
alma,'
in this
great 'lucha'
ahead,"
he said,
or "soul
mates in
this
great
fight
ahead."
Trump,
in a
text to
his own
supporters,
said
President
Barack
Obama,
Clinton
and
Kaine
were
"the
ultimate
insiders"
and
implored
voters
to not
"let
Obama
have a
3rd
term."
At the
splashy
rally,
Democrats
sought
to offer
a
contrast
with
Trump
and
Pence,
whose
first
appearance
together
in a New
York
City
hotel
ballroom
included
a
lengthy
speech
by the
GOP
businessman
and much
more
limited
remarks
from
Pence,
the
Indiana
governor.
The two
only
briefly
posed
for
photos
at their
campaign
kickoff.
Clinton
chose to
introduce
Kaine as
her
running
mate in
the
battleground
state of
Florida,
waving
to the
large
crowd of
cheering
supporters
as they
bounded
on stage
with
their
hands
raised
in the
traditional
sign of
unity.
Clinton
sought
to
present
the
partnership
as one
built in
optimism,
panning
the
Republican
convention,
which
ended
two days
earlier,
as a
display
of
"fear,"
''anger
and
resentment."
She
noted
that
Kaine
had
taken a
year off
from
Harvard
Law
School
to do
missionary
work in
Honduras
and had
worked
as a
civil
rights
attorney
specializing
in equal
housing.
Clinton
said
Kaine as
governor
worked
with
Republicans
and
helped
his home
state
navigate
the
Great
Recession
without
sacrificing
funding
for
education.
She also
pointed
to his
work on
gun
control
after
the
deadly
Virginia
Tech
shooting
in 2007,
praising
his
efforts
to curb
gun
violence
before a
nation
still
reeling
from a
series
of
shootings
and
violence
against
police.
"Behind
that
smile
Tim also
has a
backbone
of
steel.
Just ask
the
NRA,"
Clinton
said.
Choking
up,
Kaine
described
the
Virginia
Tech
shooting
as the
"worst
day ...
of my
life."
Kaine,
58, was
long
viewed
as a
likely
choice
because
of his
resume
in
government
and his
time as
chairman
of the
Democratic
National
Committee.
He also
had a
particularly
powerful
backer
in
Obama,
whom
Kaine
endorsed
in 2007.
Obama
considered
him for
vice
president
a year
later.
Kaine
showed a
willingness
to mix
it up
with the
Republican
ticket,
assailing
Trump as
someone
who had
left "a
trail of
broken
promises
and
wrecked
lives
wherever
he
goes."
He also
vouched
for
Clinton's
trustworthiness,
a major
liability
with
voters,
telling
the
crowd,
"She has
always
delivered."
He
pointed
out that
his
father-in-law
was a
Republican
governor
of
Virginia
who had
integrated
the
public
schools.
He
called
marrying
his
wife,
Anne
Holton,
"the
best
decision
of my
life."
The
couple
planned
to be
back in
Richmond
on
Sunday
for 9
a.m.
Catholic
Mass.
Holton,
who
wiped
away
tears
during
the
speech,
is the
state's
education
secretary
and a
former
state
judge.
The
couple
has
three
adult
children,
including
a son,
Nat, a
Marine
who is
going on
a
deployment
on
Monday,
aides
said.
Kaine is
likely
to be a
valuable
asset
for the
Democratic
ticket
in
appealing
to
Hispanic
Americans
turned
off by
Trump's
harsh
rhetoric
about
immigrants.
Trump
was not
making
public
appearances
on
Saturday
but took
to
Twitter
to seek
to
undercut
Clinton's
new
addition,
pointing
to the
Trans-Pacific
Partnership
trade
deal and
Wall
Street
as areas
where
supporters
of
one-time
Clinton
rival
Bernie
Sanders
might
split
with
Kaine.
Trump
tweeted
that
Kaine
"has
been
praising
the
Trans
Pacific
Partnership
and has
been
pushing
hard to
get it
approved.
Job
killer!"
In a
tweet
earlier
in the
day,
Trump
wrote
that
Kaine
was
"owned
by the
banks.
Bernie
supporters
are
outraged,
was
their
last
choice.
Bernie
fought
for
nothing!"
Kaine is
viewed
skeptically
by some
liberals,
who
dislike
his 2015
vote to
provide
the
president
with
"fast-track
authority"
on trade
deals
and
recent
stances
on Wall
Street
regulations,
including
rules
governing
regional
banks.
Clinton
opposed
the TPP
during
the
primary
against
Sanders,
citing
concerns
about
job
protections
and
national
security.
A
Clinton
campaign
aide
said
Kaine
made
clear
"in the
course
of
discussions"
that he
shares
Clinton's
opposition
to the
TPP in
its
current
form.
But
progressive
groups
said
they
want
more
assurances
that the
White
House,
which
has
pushed
the
trade
deal,
won't
try to
ram it
through
after
the
November
election.
"The
selection
increases
the
burden
on
Hillary
Clinton
to
pressure
the
White
House to
take TPP
off the
table in
a
lame-duck
Congress,"
said
Adam
Green,
co-founder
of the
Progressive
Change
Campaign
Committee.
But
Larry
Cohen, a
former
president
of the
Communications
Workers
of
America
union
and a
top
Sanders
adviser,
said
Kaine's
record
needed
to be
considered
in its
totality.
"Most
Harvard
Law
graduates
don't go
into
civil
rights
work in
the
South,"
said
Cohen,
who
first
met
Kaine
when he
served
as
Richmond's
mayor.
"His
life has
been
those
kinds of
choices.
He's
never
run
after
big
money.
He's
always
run
after
'How can
I make a
difference?'"
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