Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), Hillary Clinton‘s VP running mate in the 2016 presidential election, was surrounded by members of the press when asked for his opinion of President Donald Trump pardoning approximately 1,500 the January 6 rioters, which Kaine called “an abomination.”
Kaine added: “President Trump is the only President of the United States that vetoed a defense bill.” Kaine said that Trump vetoed the bipartisan defense bill in 2020 “because he didn’t like taking Confederate names off military bases. He said it was a rewriting of history.”
Interesting response here from @SenTimKaine on Trump’s issuing 1,500 pardons to January 6th rioters: pic.twitter.com/RPwX8rXVN6
— Joe Khalil (@JoeKhalilTV) January 21, 2025
Kaine then pointed out what he characterized as hypocrisy in noting that one of Trump’s first actions this week as President in his second administration was to order the removal of the portrait of Retired U.S. Army General Mark Milley from a wall in the Pentagon, where it hung with portraits of all former Chairs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Kaine shrugged and said sardonically of Trump, “I guess he’s okay with rewriting history.”
[NOTE: The defense bill Trump vetoed also contained limits on how much money Trump could reapportion for his border wall. CNN reported at the time that “the Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve the massive funding bill with a veto-proof majority of 84 to 13, a major rebuke to the President.” The Senate overrode Trump’s veto.]
Milley, Trump’s former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who maintained this role into the Biden administration, called Trump the “most dangerous person ever” and said that the 45th (and now 47th) President was a “fascist to the core.” (Milley served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs from October 1, 2019, to September 30, 2023.)
While campaigning in 2023, Trump slammed Milley for his calls to Chinese authorities after rioters stormed the Capitol and called Milley’s action “so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.”
Milley called his Chinese counterpart during the end of the first Trump administration to assure China that America was stable despite evident domestic chaos and that the U.S. was not planning an attack on China.
“My task at that time was to de-escalate,” Milley said in testimony. “My message again was consistent: Stay calm, steady, and de-escalate. We are not going to attack you.” The General explained his actions in the video below.