“Democrats have always been willing to invest in border security,” Sen. Tim Kaine said. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Congress Kaine blasts Trump ‘temper tantrum’

Sen. Tim Kaine thinks that the first priority of Congress and the administration needs to be reopening the government and the rest — including President Donald Trump’s border wall “vanity project” — can wait.

“Why punish people who are applying for food stamps because the president is having a temper tantrum?” Kaine (D-Va.) asked Sunday morning on NBC. “Open the government first.”


Speaking on “Meet the Press,” Kaine added that Democrats have long supported additional security at the U.S.-Mexico border, so long as it’s done the right way.

“Democrats have always been willing to invest in border security,” he said.

“All we want to do is make sure that it’s spent the right way. Drugs come in through ports of entry; let’s beef up ports of entry. The biggest group of undocumented people in the country come in on legal visas and overstay. If you build a million-foot wall, it won’t deal with that problem.”

“What we don’t want to do is waste taxpayer money on a vanity project that’s ineffective, that the president said Mexico would pay for. But spending massive amounts on border security to keep us safe? Dems do it over and over again and it’s been Republicans that have been blocking it,” the 2016 Democratic vice presidential candidate added.

