“I predict after this whole thing is over, what will be remembered about the failed candidacy of Donald Trump is ‘You’re fired,” Kaine said. | M. Scott Mahaskey Feisty Kaine rips Trump in VP audition

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine on Thursday derided Donald Trump as a candidate who will be remembered for two things: “You’re fired” and Trump U.

In his potential vice presidential audition alongside Hillary Clinton in Annandale, Virginia on Thursday, Kaine posed three questions to the crowd of supporters: He asked whether they want a “you’re fired” or “you’re hired” president, a “trash talker” or a “bridge builder,” and a “me first” president or a “kids and family first” president.


“I predict after this whole thing is over, what will be remembered about the failed candidacy of Donald Trump is ‘You’re fired” — and maybe one other phrase: Trump U, OK?” Kaine quipped, in what was possibly a double entendre.

Kaine is reportedly the leading candidate to be named Clinton’s running mate, and his joint appearance with Clinton here in Northern Virginia felt very much like a test drive of how the two would work together.

They coordinated their speeches, but an unusually energized Kaine took most of the swings at Trump, while Clinton focused on her policy talking points (with some anti-Trump zingers sprinkled in).

Kaine said voters will decide between a polarizing candidate and someone who wants to unite the country. He praised Clinton as that bridge builder, touting her experience in the Senate on the Armed Services Committee and as the leading diplomat at the State Department.

“When it comes to our leadership in the world, trash talking ain’t enough,” Kaine said. “We need a bridge builder, and we’ve got a bridge builder in Hillary Clinton.”

Kaine also showcased his fluency in Spanish, communicating directly to Spanish-speaking supporters in the audience at times and translating for the English speakers. He used both languages to extol Clinton’s “Ready for Hillary” slogan, which he described as a “powerful phrase” because of what it means in both languages.

“The word ‘ready’ in Spanish is a little bit different than the word ‘ready’ in English. So if we say in English we’re ready for Hillary, it usually means we’re waiting or it’s kind of about the time I’m ready to go to the store — something like that,” Kaine explained, referencing his time living in Honduras.

“In Spanish, in Honduras, what ‘ready’ means is more than just on time,” he said. “It means well prepared, bien hecho. It means you’re ready to get on the battlefield. You’re ready to fight. You’re somebody that can be counted on. And we were ready for Hillary because Hillary’s ready for us.”

And while Clinton is working to unify the Democratic Party and the U.S. as whole, Kaine portrayed Trump in the opposite light and blasted the billionaire for his verbal attacks on women, disabled people and minorities.

“To him, it doesn’t matter if you are a new immigrant or you’re a worker who’s been here for a long time or a DREAMer or if you’re a Latina governor of New Mexico or if you’re a federal judge,” he said. “If you’re a Latino, he’s gonna trash talk you.”

Kaine said that Trump dumps on religions, world leaders, American allies and American alliances like NATO.

“I’ll tell you what gets me steamed,” Kaine said. “Donald Trump is a guy who wants to be commander-in-chief who has said repeatedly the American military is a disaster. Hold on a second — 1.6 million young men and women volunteer to serve in a time of war now stretching 15 years and you have the guts to call them a disaster?”

Kaine also slammed Trump’s political strategy that he said capitalizes on the fears and anxiety of Americans and pits them against one another.

“It can work at times if we’re not diligent, but that’s not what leaders do,” he said. “What leaders do is they don’t sugarcoat or whitewash the challenges but they just walk right out among them, walk right out into the challenges and embrace them and bring people together. That’s what the best leaders have done in this country since we started, and that’s what we need right now.”

While Clinton was largely on message in her remarks, she also acknowledged that it was “such a great treat” to campaign in Virginia alongside “your great senator.” “I appreciate so much the leadership that he has shown for this state, and now he is doing the same in the Congress,” Clinton said. “And I really love what Tim said. I like the three questions he posed. Think about it.”

And she dedicated a few moments to Trump, too. She asked whether the path forward should be through building bridges and uplifting one another or building walls and “scapegoating and finger pointing and trying to marginalize groups of Americans, because if you listen to the presumptive Republican nominee, that is the campaign he is running.”

“This would be a good reality show,” she added. “It’s just so serious, and it has gone on and on.”

Neither Clinton nor Kaine made any reference to a batch of polls showing Clinton in a tight race with Trump in a number of battleground states or lackluster polling for the former secretary of state on whether Americans trust her. That was left up to the opening speakers.

“This election is about integrity. And Hillary Clinton has an abundance, and Donald Trump doesn't have much at all,” Rep. Don Beyer said before Clinton and Kaine came on.

“Look at these polls. They're confusing, they're scary, they're sorta tied,” Beyer said, going on to urge Clinton supporters to vote. “Every vote we need is right here.”

And Clinton herself invoked the Pokémon Go craze to try to juice turnout.

“I don’t know who created ‘Pokémon Go,’ but I’m trying to figure out how we get them to have ‘Pokémon Go To The Polls,’” she said.

Daniel Strauss contributed to this report.