Kaine calls for Secret Service investigation and praises Biden

In his fourth Southern Virginia event of the day, Kaine spoke for over an hour at the Harvester Performance Center, delivering a speech and answering questions as he seeks his third term representing Virginia in the Senate.

Kaine made his comments in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, who is also the Republican candidate for the upcoming presidential election.

“There definitely needs to be an investigation (into the Secret Service),” Kaine said. “This shouldn’t have happened. This was someone who was too close for anyone to be there without the Secret Service checking that space.”

As a former Democratic vice presidential candidate – he was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016 – he reflected on his experiences with the Secret Service.

“When I was on the ballot with Hillary, there were often places where they built covered entrances – even to walk 30 feet from a car into a building because there were tall buildings nearby,” Kaine said. “That a building just 500 feet away wasn’t secured is very concerning to me.”

Fearing further political violence, Kaine called for national unity, quoting Psalm 133, which says, “How beautiful it is when people dwell together in unity.”

“The Psalm is not saying we have to think, believe or say the same thing,” Kaine said. “But we have to be able to live alongside someone who has a different opinion.”

Kaine is campaigning at a time when more and more Democrats are calling for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential election after he ran against Trump in the first debate on June 27.

“I believe in Joe Biden’s patriotism,” Kaine said. “He puts the country before himself, and I have absolute confidence that he will do the same.”

“…I believe deeply in Joe Biden and I trust that when he says, ‘Look, I did it,’ he’ll get it done. We don’t have to get upset about it; we just have to work and make sure we win. But I also trust that Joe Biden will tell us when he looks in the mirror one day and says, ‘This is the hardest job in the world and I can’t really promise that I can do this for four years,’ then he’ll tell us which direction to go – and we’ll go in that direction.”

Kaine then turned his attention to his opponent: Hung Cao, the Republican candidate for the Senate. The two were originally scheduled to debate this Saturday, but the Virginia Bar Association canceled the event because Cao did not agree to participate.

“If you want to serve the people of Virginia in the Senate or as governor, (the voters) have a right to hear from you,” Kaine said. “I think my opponent doesn’t want to come to the debate because he doesn’t want to answer some of the questions I would ask him.”

Cao’s campaign team released a statement Tuesday evening saying: “We are currently negotiating with a national media outlet for a more visible event.”

Kaine also spoke Tuesday about federal funding for Franklin County from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant program under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. The program provided the city of Rocky Mount with $1 million to improve approximately 1.5 miles of road between Booker T. Washington Highway and Main Street and 0.7 miles of Tanyard Road.

“We’ve worked very closely with local governments on important projects,” Kaine said. “Senator (Mark) Warner and I have a way of coordinating and trying to get our concerns across to the budget committees. We’ve done a pretty good job of doing that, especially for some of the smaller communities in Virginia that wouldn’t normally receive federal funding.”