Hillary Clinton Taps Tim Kaine As Running Mate

Hours after presumptive Dem nominee Hillary Clinton held a rally in Tampa at which it had been hoped she would unveil her running mate, she instead took to text and social media to send out word it was Virginia’s Sen. Tim Kaine.

The announcement was made as Kaine was leaving a fundraiser for a fellow senator in Newport, RI.

The Clinton campaign used the announcement to grow its email and text list, offering supporters the chance to get the scoop on the veep choice; President Obama had done same when he first ran for the White House in 2008. Clinton’s announcement comes about 24 hours after Trump made his dark pitch to undecided voters on the final night of the RNC in Cleveland.

Clinton and Kaine are expected to make their first appearance as the Dem ticket at a Miami campaign rally Saturday at Florida International University, which has a student body that is heavily Hispanic. Media outlets have noted Kaine speaks fluent Spanish. The DNC starts Monday in Philadelphia. And, in a case of deja-vu-all-over-again, moments after Clinton’s announcement, CBS News announced Clinton and Kaine will appear on 60 Minutes on Sunday in their first joint interview. The newsmag snagged same moments after Trump announced Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate late last week; that interview, conducted by Leslie Stahl, aired last Sunday. Scott Pelley will interview Clinton and Kaine.

If, as some media forecast, Clinton intended to make the news this afternoon at the Tampa rally, she changed course in wake of gunfire in a Munich shopping mall that left 10 people dead including the shooter.

In so doing, it would mirror the GOP’s unveiling of Pence as Trump’s running mate last week. Trump’s camp decided to scrub a scheduled news conference at Trump Tower to unveil his running mate, in the wake of the truck attack in the seaside resort of Nice, France that claimed more than 80 lives.

Trump wanted to get the news out in advance of the RNC in Cleveland starting days later; the Indiana governor also had a hard deadline to withdraw from his re-election bid in his state.

Clinton chose Kaine after he got enthusiastic thumbs up from President Obama and former POTUS Bill Clinton.

TV news outlets reported Clinton this evening called other hopefuls to tell them of her decision before making the announcement, one of whom reacted to the news like this:

Not everyone was so impressed. RNC chairman Reince Priebus, for instance:

Another Republican, however, was more charitable:

Kaine had been Los Angeles earlier this week for a fundraising dinner at the home of UTA managing director Jay Sures. A longtime pal and supporter of the former Virginia governor, Sures invited about 30 people to dine with Kaine, who was then still running for re-election to a second Senate term in 2018. Among Kaine’s attractions to the Clinton campaign, he’s also served as a governor and mayor — one of only 20 people in American history to serve as a mayor, governor and senator. And, he joked recently, he’s “boring.”

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