Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine presented his and Hillary Clinton’s campaign as the “underdog” campaign on Wednesday during a rally for the Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 Union Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“We’re trying to make history,” Kaine told the crowd of approximately 300 people. “Can I tell you that Hillary Clinton has been an underdog again and again and again throughout her life?” he said. “Has anyone in this room had someone look them in the face and say, ‘I don’t think you will be able to do this. This isn’t for you. The time isn’t right for you?'” he posited.
“We are in the midst of making history folks. Do you feel it in the air?” he asked the crowd. Kaine was introduced by a young Mexican-American woman named Arielle.
Kaine appeared at the union hall less than 24 hours after debating Republican vice presidential nominee and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, whom he said did not even defend Trump. Mike Pence “is a pretty good debater,” Kaine said. “He is smooth. But the one thing he can’t do is defend Donald Trump on anything.”
He continued, “If you can’t defend your own running mate, how can you ask one person to vote for your running mate?”
Kaine received a great deal of heat from the media for interrupting Pence so much during Tuesday’s debate.
MSNBC anchor and debate moderator Joy Reid argued that during the debate Kaine lost the point with his “over-caffeinated presentation” and “just as me watching it as a woman, I thought that it was sort of rude to the moderator” to keep “pretending that she wasn’t even there.”
Reid said, “Tim Kaine was the more aggressive interrupter and cross-talker. I don’t think that helped him. And he was firing so many attacks, so rapid-fire and so broad at Mike Pence that he was sort of losing the point.”
On Wednesday, Kaine joked that his own wife criticized him for the interruptions. “I got dinged a little bit by my wife for interrupting too much,” he told the crowd. “The debate was a little feisty, I gotta admit. I am Irish.”
Kaine’s parents, Alan and Kathy Kaine, were in the audience. He pointed out that they are from Kansas City and that his father ran an iron-welding shop there. He noted how he had told his parents, “Hey Mom and Dad, why don’t you travel with me after the debate? I have a plane with my name on it now.”
Then he said, “We work better when we work as a team. Stronger together. Si se puede, si se puede.”
Taking one of several swipes at Trump, Kaine said the Republican presidential nominee “defines success” as “stepping all over people” and that he “defines being smart as not paying taxes.” He would later go on to say, “Well, I’ve got some words for him and smart’s not one of them.”
Kaine said he and Pence “had a good exchange” over the topic of women’s health and the right to choose.
He later went on to say that “at the end oft he day, we’ve just got to trust women. To trust that they are going to make the right decisions on these issues. We can trust American women,” he said, for which he drew applause.
Kaine also pointed out that Congress is 81 percent male, with just 19 percent of women representing government and reiterated his intention to tax the rich.
He also appealed to the ears of his working-class audience by noting that he and Clinton, if elected, would work towards increasing the federal minimum wage and seeing to equal pay.
He closed off his talk by saying, “Adelante, hasta la victoria,” which is Spanish for, “Forward, until victory.”
The song “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” came on as he exited the stage.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz
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