Kaine: Democrats 'blew the timing' of infrastructure, spending bills

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) on Sunday said congressional Democrats "blew the timing" when it came to passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill and social spending package, suggesting that the timeline could have contributed to the party's loss in Tuesday's Virginia gubernatorial race.

Kaine, who represents Virginia and previously served as governor of the Old Dominion, said Democrats on Capitol Hill should have passed the two bills in October instead of letting internal party disagreements delay the vote.

He said an earlier vote could have boosted Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe's campaign, which ultimately fell short by roughly 68,000 votes to Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin.

"I think congressional Democrats blew the timing. We should've passed these bills in early October. If we had, it would have helped Terry McAuliffe probably win the governor's race. It would have been good for President Biden," Kaine told host Margaret Brennan on CBS's "Face the Nation."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/kaine-democrats-blew-the-timing-of-infrastructure-spending-bills/ar-AAQq5gv

[Autumn]

1. I'm sure the loss had more to do with Terry McAuliffe himself.

It was his campaign to win or lose.

[Elessar Zappa]

2. I'm not entirely convinced it would have helped McAuliffe.

The main reason for the Rethug’s victory seemed to be that a percentage of suburban swing voters were scared by the fake, bullshit CRT rhetoric coming from the right.

[Mad_Machine76]

9. This

[Native]

19. He also campaigned on getting rid of the tax on groceries.

[leftstreet]

3. Car charging stations vs race baiting fear

yeah...McAuliffe would have just cleaned up

[50 Shades Of Blue]

4. Just from sitting though many dozens of McAuliffe and Youngkin commericials,

I couldn't see McAuliffe winning. Youngkin nailed him in a way that he never did to Youngkin.

The race was absolutely McAuliffe's to lose. He lost it. Congressional Democrats had zip to do with it.

[In It to Win It]

5. Sure, having those bills would not have hurt but...

McAuliffe lost by a small margin. He should have touched on the issues more to people. Sell how he would have built on Northam’s Medicaid expansion. Sell your plan for raising teachers’ paychecks. Sell a plan for Virginia’s infrastructure… and so on.

Let people know what you’re gonna do for them and what your opponent will take away from them. I don’t think McAuliffe did that enough. I think Terry McAuliffe could have absolutely won this race despite what was going on (or not going on) in Washington.

ETA: I think Democrats have to ease the messaging on vaccines and vaccine mandates because people are COVID-fatigued. The end of COVID has to be near and we need to start drilling the message of life after COVID.

[Budi]

7. Absolutely it would have given momentum to carry a win for Dems.

Agree completely with both Kaine & Sen Warner.

It's not as tho the Infrastructure bill was "Nothing".
It affects every State, county & community ffs.

Maybe it's time to just own up to the damage done.

No way can anyone pass off the Infrastructure bill as "No big deal", .."Wouldn't have mattered anyway." Not anymore.

Judging by local & national, State & City Headlines since it was passed & now signed, the critical need is already being assessed, in anticipation of the day States can move forward.
There is need in every part of this country.
From Lead Pipes in Michigan to roads & bridges in Missouri, & the recent damage from flooding in New York City itself.

And yes, even VIRGINIA has need like the rest of the States.

Of course passage of BIF early on would have drove a serious momentum for McAulliffe.

A trillion $$ is Not Nothing.

[leftstreet]

8. You'd think that 4th of July WIN would have done it

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Budi]

11. More from The White House..

Link to tweet

HERE. DIG IN!

Link to tweet

The White House @WhiteHouse
Nov 6
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal represents the most significant long-term investments in American infrastructure and global competitiveness in nearly a century

https://www.whitehouse.gov/bipartisan-infrastructure-deal/
President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal

[Mad_Machine76]

10. Two Things:

1. This isn't helpful for Kaine to be doing (Democratic officeholders need to stop this! Republicans don't spend a ton of time lambasting their successes)
2. He should really be speaking out to Manchin and Sinema. They were the main people trying to hold up BBB. Democrats wanted to pass both bills together and could have if both of them hadn't been jerking Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer around for months with all of their demands.

[Budi]

13. "Democratic officeholders need to stop this! " 😂

Kaine & Warner issued a statement in agreement with many.

Kaine & Warner aren't the officeholders tweeting en masse, nor appearing in the regular lineup on the TeeVee for the Global Corporate Owned Billion$$$ Media profiteers.

Are they?

[ARandomPerson]

12. I agree with Kaine.

Manchin and Sinema deserve a huge amount of scorn, and so does Jayapal.

They didn't do Biden or Democrats any favors.

[Midnight Writer]

14. If If If...If Hillary would have picked a more charismatic running mate...

You can play these "If only" games forever, but they don't do anybody any good.

Disappointed to hear a good Democrat go on TV to publicly criticize his Party's work.

Learn from your losses, but don't go on TV to blame your own people.

Maybe he should have blamed Youngkin for a dishonest campaign fueled by race fear and bigotry.

[tavernier]

20. Agree.

Take care when you decide to Monday Morning Quarterback… people might be tempted to replay your last game.

[UTUSN]

24. Spot on, excellent post!

[LiberalFighter]

15. Really? Kaine thinks it is fault of congressional Democrats?

The blame is on the Senate side. Primarily Manchin and Sinema. And he knows it but doesn't want to admit it.

[Budi]

17. No, There's no doubt Kaine & Warner know exactly what they're talking about

Or they wouldn't say it.

It's not like either spend time on the Tee Vee as Corporate Owned Media regulars.

They said exactly what they meant to say..
Kaine & Warner would be the 1st to 'admit what they know' & think.

Both are well respected & have years in the Senate. They don't need to bs anyone.

[George II]

21. This is about the passage of the bill and it's timing. Reminder, the Senate, INCLUDING Manchin and..

...Sinema and Kaine, passed this bill weeks ago.

Pelosi had two votes scheduled in the last couple of weeks, both prior to election day. Due to public statements by some members of the CPC that they would not vote for it, she cancelled both. Even the chair of the CPC, up until about a week ago, said she wouldn't vote for it.

I think the Speaker finally got fed up decided to go ahead with a vote on Friday, but it was too late to help Democrats and Terry McAuliffe in the election.

As it turned out, six members of the CPC (and four crossover members of the CBC) voted against the wishes of Pelosi AND the chairs of both the CPC and CBC, and voted Nay. Even the chair of the CPC voted for the bill.

What's amusing is now there are some in other places who are rationalizing the Nay votes by saying those six had Pelosi's "blessing". Sure they did.

More amusing is that the whip of the CPC, charged with whipping up votes for the bill, wound up voting AGAINST it. I wonder if we'll be seeing a shakeup of the leadership of the CPC because of that.

Bottom line, Senator Kaine is correct in his assessment, the delay in passing the bill did cause Democrats in Virginia to lose votes and in a close election might have cost McAuliffe the win.

And there's no way this can be pinned on either Manchin or Sinema.

[WHITT]

16. Once Again

In Tuesday's elections, historically, the Repubs UNDERPERFORMED and the Dems OVERPERFORMED. It was disastrous for Repubs.

[GoodRaisin]

18. While I would have liked for the bill to be passed sooner I'm not sure

it was the difference. I think it was the bullshit “education” CRT nonsense.

[helpisontheway]

22. I think we lost VA due to issues within the state

Republicans in my area hated Governor Northam. They were beyond pissed about their statues being removed. They were pissed due to decisions he made about Covid. They were pissed about guns. Afghanistan really hurt democrats here. We have a lot of military and Biden really pissed them off.Not because we pulled out but the way we did. The way the media portrayed it. Then the whole school thing blew up. A better candidate probably would have still ended up on top. However, Terry did not run a good campaign. There was no organization like past years. Yet Jaime Harrison claimed that they invested $6 million to get out the vote. I can’t tell…

[gulliver]

23. They had some white suburban moms on CNN who I thought were on point.

It was about education but not about CRT specifically, according them. They were pissed that McAuliffe dismissed their concerns (about keeping schools open and helping their kids catch up) and concerned he sidled up to teachers' unions. The moms basically thought of the teachers' unions as "the enemy." I can see that if a mom has felt forced out of the workplace to stay home with the kids, her kids are having emotional issues, and the teachers' unions are fighting to keep the schools closed or remote, there might be some friction.

On the timing of the bills, I'm just not sure we haven't been keeping our powder dry for 2022. I don't think Congressional Dems are going to feel driven to protect Terry McAuliffe. He's one office. I think the Dems are in pretty good shape, frankly. The painful stuff is mostly out of the way at this point (still have BBB to do). Biden's a big success already, and by 2022 that will be much more obvious, imo.