"We've got to have a commander in chief who knows what she's doing," Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said. | Getty Kaine on Trump: 'A guy who will always put himself first'

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, reportedly a top contender on Hillary Clinton’s veep list, went after Donald Trump on Sunday for his reaction to Brexit, saying that the presumptive GOP presidential nominee always puts himself first. But Kaine acknowledged that there "are parallels" between Brexit and divisions in the United States.

Kaine criticized Trump's comments in Scotland, where he addressed the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union, including Trump's excitement that the "British pound is taking a beating now," in Kaine's retelling.


"This is a guy who will always put himself first. So of course he's going to interpret it about, 'Here's why I've done well,'" Kaine said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Kaine took the Democratic Party line on Brexit, saying that "the relationship with Britain has been so strong," so the United States will "have to help them find a path over the next couple years to do this in a way that can keep ties rather than tear ties apart."

He also boosted Clinton by saying that American voters need to "make sure that the control of this nation is in the hands of somebody who's steady and confident and calm."

"We've got to have a commander in chief who knows what she's doing," Kaine said. "And that's the most important issue that's on the table for us right now, just like England's going to grapple with this important question of Brexit, we have to grapple with the style of leadership we want going."

But the Virginia senator also lightly criticized President Barack Obama's handling of the Syrian migrant crisis, which brought over 1 million refugees to Europe last year, calling it a "factor" in Brexit.

"Beginning in February 2014, I started to call for the notion that we should do a humanitarian safe zone in northern Syria, where Syrian refugees who don't want to leave their country, could go there," Kaine said, noting that he's a strong supporter of the president's overall foreign policy. "And that's something that I think had we done that, I think that you wouldn't have seen the outflow of refugees we've seen."