Democratic vice presidential nominee and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine was not able to defend Hillary Clinton’s reset with Russia and instead pivoted to connecting Donald Trump to the Kremlin during an interview Sunday.

“Hillary Clinton was in charge with the so-called reset with Russia. Can you make an argument that it worked, given what happened in Crimea and Syria?” ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked Kaine.

[dcquiz] The Virginia senator replied, “I don’t think you can make an argument that the relationship with Russia is in a good place right now.” (RELATED: Kaine Touts Hillary’s Press Accessibility, Compares Trump To ‘Putin And Other Dictators’ [VIDEO])



“But that’s not the U.S.’ fault, that’s Vladimir Putin’s aggressive and imperialist ambitions,” Kaine continued on to say. He then changed his focus to Trump. “Donald Trump was not even aware that Putin had gone into Crimea as recent as two weeks ago.”

“This is just one of a number of very very troubling insistences where Trump’s coziness with Putin is coziness with Russia,” Kaine said. Raddatz then cut in to focus back on the Russian reset, and showed a quote from a Polish foreign minister who said Russia viewed the 2009 reset as a sign of weakness. (RELATED: Clinton Campaign Continues To Push Trump-Russian Conspiracy Theory)

Kaine, as he did before, refused to put any blame on the U.S. and focused on Trump.

“The guy is a dictator who represses journalists and there’s another tie. Donald Trump is banning journalists from outlets he doesn’t like from covering him on the campaign, he’s taking lessons from Putin and others,” Kaine said. “To say that Putin’s imperial ambitions are the fault of anybody in the United States is ridiculous.”