Dem Sen Kaine: Trump Has Made ‘Concerted Effort’ to Divide People Based on Race

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said President Donald Trump had made a “concerted effort” to use race to divide people.

Kaine said, “What I think I’m most concerned about with this president is his pension to divide us, to attack people because they’re immigrants, to attack people because of their religion, to attack minorities, to use vulgar language to describe countries where people come who might be Latino or African. There is a concerted effort that he is been engaged in to divide people including dividing based on race. Nowhere was that more obvious, nowhere, than in the aftermath of Charlottesville.”

When asked if Trump is racist, Kaine said, “I don’t know him. I have no idea about who he is as a person, whether it’s a sincere feeling or whether he thinks it gets him some political edge or gain, I don’t know the answer. But I don’t know which of those two is worse. If it’s not your view, but you do it to try to get a political edge and try to stoke division, in some ways that’s every bit as morally bad as holding views that are bigoted or race.”

He added, “He used vulgar language to describe certain countries. He uses unfair stereotypes. Give me a break. He will suggest that everybody who comes to the border is a member of MS13, give me a break. Statistics show that is not true. When somebody perpetuates a stereotype that is false, you have to ask why are they doing that? And I think he is stoking division. And it’s against folks from third world countries, folks whose skin color are different than his, folks whose religion he doesn’t approve of.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.