Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s new pick for vice presidential candidate, speaks Spanish fluently—something that liberals have swooned over since he was chosen on Friday.
In Kaine’s first speech to the country as Clinton’s running mate, he addressed the Miami audience in a mix of English and Spanish. But some comments he made in Spanish are raising eyebrows.
He greeted the crowd, seen in the beginning of this video:
A roundup of Sen. Tim Kaine showing off his Spanish during today's rally in Miami pic.twitter.com/ApWWXGl2dK
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) July 23, 2016
“¡Bienvenidos a todos! ¿Bienvenidos a todos en nuestro pais, verdad? ¡Porque somos Americanos todos!” Kaine said.
“Welcome everyone,” Kaine said in Spanish. “Welcome to everyone in our country, right? Because we are all Americans!”
This is an odd sentiment. Kaine seems to be implying that we should welcome absolutely everyone to the United States. And that everyone who comes should be able to stay.
Given this comment, then, what he said next should not surprise anyone:
Kaine, in Spanish, says Clinton will work for immigration reform in first 100 days. HRC nods along. pic.twitter.com/Egq2KyWUAe
— David Mack (@davidmackau) July 23, 2016
“In the Senate, we did this three years ago. And we are still waiting for the House of Representatives to have a debate or a vote on … immigration reform. So we are going to work together on that in the first hundred days of the administration.”
Did Kaine just promise wide-sweeping amnesty? Twitter users responded:
Kaine told the audience in Spanish that they would have a path to citizenship within 100 days. AMNESTY!!
— Dorrie (@Yehudi3) July 25, 2016
he should have just tried to pronounce "amnistía" and gotten it over with.
— Andres Ayrado (@AndresAyrado) July 23, 2016
This person had a different take:
The Republicans should be nervous because Clinton and Kaine are reaching out to different factions of voters.
— andrew hass (@andrewhass2) July 23, 2016
Someone even found proof in the DNC email leak that the party is trying hard to appeal to Latinos.
https://twitter.com/TheJasonKinlaw/status/756918948982038530
Let’s be real, the fact that Kaine speaks Spanish really changes nothing about politics in the United States.
Isn't it great when our politicians can lie in more than one language?
— Captain Anton Zilwicki, Royal Manticoran Navy (@antonzilwicky54) July 24, 2016
Editor’s note: This has been corrected to report that Tim Kaine is Senator and not Governor of Virginia.
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