Elizabeth Warren will say Tim Kaine is ‘a good man.’ And that’s pretty much it.
Since Tim Kaine was officially announced as Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Elizabeth Warren has spoken favorably, if limitedly, about the Virginia senator and soon-to-be Democratic vice presidential nominee.
But was Kaine the right choice? That the Massachusetts senator has declined to say.
In an interview Wednesday with ABC News’s David Muir, Warren was asked twice whether Kaine was “the right pick.” Both times, she demurred.
“He is a good man,” Warren said, twice.
Warren calls Tim Kaine “a good man,” but declines to say if he was right VP pick for Clinton https://t.co/fD78jObxrnhttps://t.co/0yGmygQnrl
— ABC News (@ABC) July 27, 2016
Warren, a popular progressive and finalist on Clinton’s VP shortlist, went on to say that Kaine has a “good heart” and would add valuable experience to the Clinton ticket.
Warren’s response Wednesday mirrors the answer she gave in a Boston Globe interview Sunday, when asked about Kaine.
She declined to say whether she thinks US Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, a centrist, could excite the left wing of the party.
“I’ve gotten to know Tim Kaine,” Warren said. “He’s an honest guy and a smart guy.”
Warren said she’s impressed with Kaine’s work as an attorney to combat housing discrimination. “He has a good heart,” Warren said.
Those statements echoed the tweet Warren sent out the day after Kaine’s selection last Friday.
.@timkaine started his career helping families fight housing discrimination. That’s because Tim has always had a good heart.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) July 23, 2016
The question remains if Kaine, who is seen as a moderate, is sufficiently progressive to appease Bernie Sanders supporters, some of whom have vocalized their opposition to Clinton during the convention’s opening days.
Sanders himself forcefully urged his supporters to vote for the Clinton-Kaine ticket during his speech Monday night. However, the Vermont senator also said Sunday he wished Warren, another darling of the left, had been picked as vice president.
Kaine has already taken a few recent left turns—including on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which Sanders and Warren stalwartly oppose—to bring himself into the fold with Clinton, who herself had moved left to mobilize the Sanders-Warren wing of the party heading into the general election.
Kaine is scheduled to take the stage Wednesday night in a prime-time speech at the Democratic convention. It will be an opportunity to introduce himself to a national audience and to address whatever reservations the party’s left wing has of him.
Because one thing has been clear so far, Warren and Sanders aren’t doing it for him.
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