Farmville (Virginia): Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine ripped apart Donald Trump for his “dangerous” ideas of supporting more nations getting nuclear weapons and having no plans to combat terrorism.
Senator Kaine and his Republican rival Mike Pence clashed in the first and only vice presidential debate here last night, constantly interrupting each other on issues of immigration, terrorism and the Syrian war.
On a question by debate moderator Elaine Quijano of CBS News whether America is safer today, Kaine said the terrorist threat facing the US has decreased in some ways because Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead and the Iranian nuclear weapon programme has been stopped.
He, however, slammed Trump for having no plans to combat terrorism and “trash-talking” US military and its generals.
“Trump can’t start a Twitter war with Miss Universe without shooting himself in the foot. Donald Trump doesn’t have a plan. He said I have a secret plan, and then he said I know more than all the general about ISIS. And then he said, I want to call the generals to help me figure out a plan and finally, he said I would fire all the generals,” Kaine said in his salvo against Trump.
He said Trump only has “dangerous ideas”, which include trash-talking the military and calling it a “disaster”.
“He loves dictators. He got a personal Mount Rushmore — (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, (North Korean Leader) Kim Jong-Un, (Libyan dictator) Muammar Gaddafi and (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein,” he said referring to the massive sculpture carved into Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota with faces of US presidents.
Pence remarked “Oh come on” to these comments.
Kaine said Hillary Clinton is the only candidate who can beat terrorism because she has got a plan to do it.
“She was part of the national security team that wiped out bin Laden. We have a plan to defeat ISIS. We have to keep taking out their leaders on the ground. Just as Clinton was part of the team that got bin Laden, she will lead the team that will get ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” Kaine said.
He said Clinton’s plan to fight terrorism includes need to disrupt financing networks, disrupt terrorists’ ability to recruit on the internet and end their safe havens.
“We also have to work with allies to share and surge intelligent,” he said as opposed to Trump s plan to tear down alliances like NATO.
Kaine said that “most dangerously”, Trump believes that the world will be safer if more nations have nuclear weapons.
Pence responded by saying it looked like Kaine had worked on his speech on terrorism “for a long time” as it contained very “creative lines”.
“America is less safe today than it was the day Barack Obama became president of the US. It is absolutely inarguable.
We’ve weakened America’s place in the world mostly it’s been a lack of leadership,” he said, adding that America s “primary” threat today is ISIS and the country is “back at war” in Iraq.
PTI