Clinton’s VP pick Tim Kaine fights back tears on Orlando memorial visit
Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine fought back tears on camera during a visit to Orlando’s Pulse shooting memorial, before vowing “We’ve got work to do.”
50 people were killed and 53 injured in the Pulse gay club shooting on June 12, when a gunman opened fire in the club.
Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton visited the site of the in the wake of the shooting. Yesterday Mr Kaine, her candidate for Vice President, made a low-key visit to the memorial on his way to a debate-watching party with the Human Rights Campaign in Orlando.
He reflected on serving as Governor of Virginia during the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, when 37 people died.
Fighting back tears after placing flowers at the memorial, Mr Kaine said: “The thing that’s painful about this… this is a weird thing to say but I always hoped that the Virginia Tech one would be the worst one ever.
As bad as that was, I hoped that nothing would eclipse it, but such is life.”
He vowed: “We’ve got work to do.”
Senator Kaine has been a long-time advocate for LGBT+ equality. He was one of the original sponsors of the Equality Act, and in 2006 on becoming the Governor of Virginia he signed an executive order to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
His views contrast with Donald Trump’s VP pick Mike Pence, a diehard opponent of LGBT rights who previously signed a ‘religious freedom’ law permitting anti-LGBT discrimination.
