Tim Kaine Shreds Trump Over 'Bomb Bomb Iran' Beach Boys Parody Post: 'Is It Just A Big Joke?'

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) spoke about one of President Trumps' Truth Social posts.

Transcript

00:00Senator, Senator Kane. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and to my colleagues and those who

00:06are here, I've been in the Senate now coming up on 13 years and the best part

00:11of the job is being on this committee, by far. When everything else is not going

00:15well, being on this committee is the best part of the job. It's the best part of

00:19the job because my colleagues are rock solid. We have plenty of disagreements,

00:25but we work very, very closely together. The week after the 4th of July, we'll

00:29mark up the defense bill. We sit around the table. We're the only committee that

00:32does this. We sit around the table until every last member has offered every last

00:39amendment and there's nothing left to offer, and then we end up with the bill

00:42that even if you lose an amendment or two, everybody has their fingerprints on it.

00:46We usually voted out 25 to 2 or 26 to 2. My colleagues are good. The staff is

00:52fantastic, but the important part of it is the mission. It's our troops.

00:58Virginia, I'm going to make a claim and other senators will challenge me in a

01:04virtuous competition, but I'm going to claim we are the most pro-military state

01:07in this country. About one out of ten Virginians as a veteran, then there's

01:13active, then there's guard, then there's reserve, then there's DOD civilians, then

01:18there's DOD contractors and military families like mine. It's such serious stuff.

01:25It's such serious stuff. I was very, very disturbed yesterday, and this is this is

01:33not going to be a question for any of you. This is really just for this gathering. I

01:37was so disturbed yesterday when the commander-in-chief of the greatest nation

01:43on this planet posted a music video. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, bomb, bomb, bomb,

01:53bomb Iran, went to a mosque, gonna throw some rocks, time to turn Iran into a parking lot.

02:00Music video with bombers flying behind residential buildings. It had another line in it about sending

02:09the Ayatollah home in a box. I mean, is this the way, is this the way we ought to treat war in,

02:22in this country? I mean, is it just a big joke? 40,000 troops are deployed in the Middle East

02:30right now. They're all on high alert because of what's going on in the Middle East. I've got people

02:35all over Virginia who are worried about, are they going to get deployed? Are their kids going to

02:39get deployed? Are we going to be in a third war in the Middle East in the last 20 years? And we've

02:46got a commander-in-chief putting up stuff like this. When I came to the Senate, I served first under a

02:53Democratic president, then under President Trump, then under a Democratic president, then again under

02:58President Trump. And I came with the view that war was too serious an issue to be left to one person.

03:05I, I deeply believe what the framers of our Constitution believe, that the matter is so serious and so

03:13consequential that it shouldn't be left to one person. That, that we should only be at war if, if Congress has a

03:21serious and deliberative process about that. And I have a resolution that will likely be voted on to

03:28that effect in the next couple of days. But I just, I just wanted to begin with this. Let's take this

03:35seriously. I think the committee takes it seriously. I think the American public takes it seriously. I know

03:41Virginians who are in the military or whose family are in the military take it seriously. It's not a joke. It's not a joke.

03:50Secretary Gillis, let me ask you this. We had the person that is currently serving as acting in the

04:00position for which you've been nominated before us in the readiness subcommittee yesterday, Senator

04:05Sullivan and Hirono held a hearing. And I asked them about UAS issues. We've got major challenges with

04:13U.S. incursions on our bases, Army bases and others. We had an incursion at the base in the

04:19base, the Langley base, 19 months ago. We still haven't gotten good answers for it. The Army is playing

04:26kind of a lead role in this. They are the executive agent and NorthCom is the lead synchronizer in the

04:32kind of all-stakeholder group as we're trying to figure out how to stop UAS incursions on our bases.

04:38Talk to me about how you would prioritize this should you be confirmed.

04:42Senator, I watched that hearing with great interest and I thought that Dr. Waxman did a great job and I'll reiterate a few points.

04:49I mean, first, there's the technological piece. We have to figure out whether it's kinetic or non-kinetic and how we balance the

04:55security and installation with the safety of the adjacent public. And then there's the authorities piece.

05:02So having looked into this a little bit before when I was in the seat, we've got to coordinate

05:07and be sure that we have the right authorities with respect to the FAA and the FCC so that we can take the actions that we need to take.

05:16But I agree with you that it is a very important and alarming issue and commit to looking into that and continuing to drive the Army's efforts.

05:24Thank you. Yelpak.

05:25Yelpak.

05:26It is an issue that needs some.

05:29And.

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Transcript

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