Tim Kaine on "The View": Trump Accusers Shocking, But Not Surprising

Michael Davidson for Hillary for America(NEW YORK) — In an appearance on ABC’s The View, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine discussed the accusations by a growing number of women alleging that Trump inappropriately touched or kissed them, calling the accusations “shocking,” but not surprising.

Kaine has previously called Trump’s apology for foul-mouthed remarks made in a 2005 Access Hollywood video insincere. In the video, Trump described making moves on women. Some, including Kaine, have described Trump’s remarks about what he does to women as abusive. Trump has defended his remarks as just words and “locker room” banter.

“I guess I was shocked but not surprised. I mean the tape kind of made me sick to my stomach, but if you’ve been following things that he’s been saying during his career and during the campaign, it wasn’t completely surprising. I was surprised on stage Sunday night when he said, ‘I just said that, I never did it.’ Because I felt like, okay, well how many days is it going to be until folks are coming out and saying, that’s exactly the way he treated me, and now we’re seeing that happen,” Kaine told The View.

Hillary Clinton’s running mate added, “So, not surprised but it is shocking, and especially that he is the nominee and this stuff is coming out.”

Over the past 24 hours, a number of reports have been published of women claiming Trump inappropriately kissed them or groped them. A Trump campaign spokesman has denied the allegations, calling one of the reports published in The New York Times “fiction” and “completely false.” Trump’s attorneys have called for a retraction and threatened a lawsuit against The Times.

While dishing with the ladies of The View, Kaine was also asked about his reaction to Trump using Bill Clinton’s past infidelity as an issue in the 2016 election.

“Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the two on the ballot. I mean, that’s the relevant comparison,” Kaine said. “After Donald lost the first debate he said, okay, now I’ve got to make the Clinton’s marriage an issue. It’s not an issue for the voters. He can run the campaign he wants.”

Prior to the most recent debate between Trump and Clinton, Trump held a news conference with women who have accused Bill Clinton of inappropriately touching them.

“That took it to the next level,” said Kaine of Trump holding the news conference with Bill Clinton’s accusers.

“It was a weird circumstance for her to walk into and I think what voters were looking at was, you know, how can you handle it, I mean, and she handled it like somebody who’s got the temperament and the judgment to do the job, and that was what I really appreciated,” Kaine said.

Kaine was also pressed about whether the contents of some of the hacked emails released by WikiLeaks raises more questions about whether Clinton is trustworthy.

“First thing on the WikiLeaks, the FBI and the director of national intelligence has said that this is hacking that Russians are behind it, the Russian government is behind it. Anybody that would hack to try to destabilize an election, you can’t automatically assume that everything in all of these documents are even real,” Kaine said.

While Kaine was serious about the buzziest headlines, he also poked some fun at himself. He joked about his interruptions of Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence during the recent vice presidential debate.

“I have apparently watched too many episodes of The View, I mean, with the interrupts,” Kaine said.

When asked if it hurt to be called the loser of the debate, Kaine said, “Again, I wasn’t going in to win the debate. I was going in to try to win the election. That was my goal.”

For the second part of his interview, Kaine was joined by his wife Anne Holton. The two described their dating days during which Kaine wrote poetry for Holton.

Holton was asked about the younger pictures of Kaine that some have described as proof that he was once a hottie.

“I actually think he’s hotter now than he was then, so,” Holton said. “But I don’t like to say that in front of him. I don’t want his head to get swollen.”

Kaine followed up, joking, “She said that once and I said, honey, thanks for that compliment saying you’re hot. She said I didn’t say you’re hot. I said you’re hotter now than you were then. I thought you were kind of goofy back then.”

Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

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