Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” when asked about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton telling bankers behind closed doors that she wanted “open trade and open borders” according to transcripts of her leaked Wall Street speeches, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said he has “no way of knowing,” if the leaks are true to which host Jake Tapper said, “Well you could ask her.”
Partial transcript as follows:
TAPPER: Let’s turn to the latest revelations from WikiLeaks. We got a glimpse from those famous paid speeches by Hillary Clinton that Bernie Sanders wanted released during the democratic primaries one of them in a closed door 2013 speech to a Brazilian speech Secretary Clinton said this I quote, ‘My dream is a hemispheric common market with open borders, sometime in the future,’ Is that her dream? is that what she wants? Open borders, an open market?
KAINE: Yeah, Jake. I’m glad you asked it that way. I don’t think we can dignify documents dumped by Wikileaks and just assume that they’re all accurate and true. Anybody who hacks into get documents is completely capable of manipulating them. But you asked the question about what is her position on policy. Hillary’s position on policy on markets and trade is very plain, which is we’ll do trade deals but only if they meet three criteria, increase American jobs and wages and are they good for national security. If they are and if we can enforce them, then trade deals are okay. If not, we can’t embrace them. When Hillary was a U.S. senator, she voted for some trade deals when they met her standards, but she voted against others when they didn’t. We’re going to fight so that the only trade deals we’ll contemplate are ones that have the high standards that she set out.
TAPPER: Right. but senator, first of all, are you disputing the accuracy soft this? Did Hillary Clinton not say to these Brazilian bankers that she has this dream?
KAINE: Jake, I have no way of knowing the accuracy of documents dumped by this hacking organization. But I think it is really important this hacking has been connected much of the hacking has been connected to the Russian government. Yesterday the director of national intelligence indicated that this kind of hacking has been traced directly to the Russian government and there is a direct intent to influence the outcome of an American election.If that is, in fact, true, you cannot accept as gospel truth everything that they might put in a document. but you didn’t ask about the document, you asked me what Hillary Clinton’s position was.
TAPPER: Right, that’s fair. Is this document then is it accurate? Did she tell Brazilian bankers that her dream –
KAINE: I have no way of knowing that. I have no way of knowing that.
TAPPER: Well, you could ask her.
KAINE: But the documents are in the thousands. I haven’t asked her. You asked me about her position on trade. Her position on trade is very clear.
TAPPER: What about her position on borders. she says her dream in this document, her dream is a hemispheric common market with open borders. is that something that — in the Clinton/Kaine administration we would see open borders?
KAINE: We believe in comprehensive immigration reform that would with the pillars that we’ve described where we would have more border security. Jake, as you know, I voted for significant investments in June of 2013 and continue to believe that’s part of a comprehensive immigration reform plan along with the value of keeping families together in providing a path to citizenship for those who work hard, play by the rules and pay taxes.
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