Sen. Tim Kaine insisted he did not “need a permission slip” from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer when he opted to switch his vote from “no” to “yes” in favor of ending the government shutdown, he told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker Sunday.
Kaine shared that the pair “had a really interesting argument about an unrelated topic a couple of years ago where I was going a different direction than he was on something. And he was really, really pushing me. And I said, ‘Chuck, listen, my goal with you is always to inform you. But I don’t need a permission slip from you because eight and a half million Virginians gave me that permission slip in November of 2024’. He voted the other way.”
Schumer “would have preferred that I not voted the way that I did,” Kaine continued, “But he knows that U.S. senators are going to do what’s in the interest of their constituents. And my 320,000 federal workers and their families are a powerful, powerful part of who I represent. And when I could get important protections for them after a year of being kicked around by Donald Trump, I said, I’m ready to sign on.”
Kaine also made it clear that when it came to reopening the government, his priorities were varied.
“I’m not speaking for anybody else. I didn’t need all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed on health care,” he said. “But what I needed was a moratorium on mischief so that the president couldn’t continue to abuse federal employees and Congressionally-funded programs.”
“Would I have liked to get the full health care issues fixed? Absolutely. And I’m very focused on working with all Democrats to put a good proposal on the table,” Kaine continued. “But I fully believe that had we not reopened government, there was no path forward to do what we all want to do. And now there is that path forward. And we have to, you know, do our very, very best to make it mean something.”
The Democrats’ decision to reopen the government was mocked and debated by many, including late night host Seth Meyers and NewsNation’s Geraldo Rivera. At the beginning of his “A Closer Look” segment on November 10 Meyers recalled the success the Democrats enjoyed on election night only days prior.
“Democrats, are you seeing this? Why are you caving to this guy in a span of like, five days?” he asked. “He got crushed in elections, got booed a football game, fell asleep in a meeting, and you guys saw that and thought, ‘There’s no way we could beat this guy. He’s at the top of his game.’”
“Look, no one likes a shutdown, but this is the worst way to cave,” he also said. “Democrats had Trump on the ropes. Voters were on their side. Trump was getting booed, losing elections, and holding press conferences in the Oval Office so he could sleep again.”
Rivera also criticized the decision Monday. “They caved because they had the losing hand,” Rivera said on Monday’s “The Daily Take” with anchor Connell McShane. “You know, it was the Democrats who added on to the controversy. They took a funding crisis and tried to make it a policy issue.”
He added that in his opinion, Democrats were attempting to blackmail Republicans on the issue of healthcare subsidies. “You can’t run a government by blackmail,” he added. “There was no spirit of compromise. It was an out-and-out power grab.”
Watch the interview with Tim Kaine in the video above.
