The Martinsville Henry County Democratic Committee hosted U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine at The Ground Floor in Martinsville on Tuesday, July 16. There, Kaine discussed Pres. Joe Biden’s second presidential bid and several other topics – including rural health care and the recent assassination attempt on former Pres. Donald Trump.
An incumbent, Kaine is seeking reelection in November. He is being challenged by Hung Cao, who won the Republican nomination.
When voicing his support for Biden’s reelection bid, Kaine, D-Richmond, said, “If Joe Biden says look, I’m putting the country first, and I’ve got this. Then, we’re going to make sure Joe and Kamala (Harris – his running mate) not only win Virginia but win this race.”
Kaine said that Biden would “level with us” if there comes a time when the current president does not feel that he’s fit to do the job.
“You don’t need to worry about him doing the patriotic thing and putting the country first. As long as he’s in this race, we’re with him,” Kaine said. “If he decides he can’t do it, he’ll tell us, and then we will go a different direction.”
The failed assassination of Trump “just brought up a lot of bad memories,” Kaine said. “I grew up in the age of JFK being assassinated, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy, and it just reminded me of that chaos. I’m so grateful that President Trump wasn’t badly injured.”
An investigation needs to be done to determine the cause of the security lapses at the rally in Butler, Pa., Kaine said. “We just have to try to better as a society, so these shocking instances of gun violence aren’t just happening again, and again, and again.”
He said that the economy is one of the biggest issues on the minds of potential voters, but Kaine indicated that there is good news for the economy in Virginia.
“Unemployment rates are at historic lows, inflation rates are down, 401K’s are up, manufacturing jobs are up,” Kaine said, and indicated that while there’s no quick fix for the economy, policies helping with student loan forgiveness, prescription drug costs, and childcare costs can help ease the burden on Americans.
“That’s a way to really address voters’ concerns,” he said.
Health care in rural Virginia is another area of concern, Kaine said, noting “it would be great if we could do more to attract health care providers to rural areas.” He said that the Care Act was used to expand coverage in rural Virginia, and “what we’ve done on the prescription drug side has also helped people, seniors.”
When addressing the border crisis, Kaine said “border crossings are dramatically down in the last few months. They would have been down more if Republicans had joined with the bi-partisan plan that we negotiated in February. They decided to bail and not support the plan.”
