Kaine hits Stewart on defense spending in new ad
Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine is accusing his Republican opponent, Corey Stewart, of playing politics on defense spending in a new television ad to air this week.
In the new spot, Kaine points to a Mach spending bill he supported that expanded the Navy's capacity and raised military salaries, contrasting his stance on the bill to audio from an interview with Stewart trashing the bill.
"Just an absolute nightmare and a disaster. I wish the president had vetoed it," Stewart says in a clip of an interview on the John Fredericks Radio Network that is used in the ad.
Immediately after the audio plays, Kaine joins back in to argue that vetoing the spending bill "would hurt Virginia and threaten our security."
Defense issues are key in Virginia, which is home to both military installations as well as many major defense contractors.
The March spending bill authorized $1.3 trillion in spending across the government and helped to avert a government shutdown. But it didn't include key priorities to President Trump, like defunding sanctuary cities, slashing government programs or defunding Planned Parenthood, a reality that led to conservative calls for Trump to veto it. Stewart joined that drum beat, arguing against the bill in that radio interview and tweeting that it was a "Democrat bill."
Trump begrudgingly signed it, arguing he felt "forced" into signing it because of how it helped the military but declaring "I will never sign another bill like this again."
Stewart has tried to flip the script back onto Kaine, arguing that the senator isn't supportive of the military because he opposed a short-term spending bill earlier this year. But Kaine said he voted against the bill because he wanted more long-term stability, and ultimately supported the bill that Stewart opposed.
Kaine continues to poll substantially above Stewart—a recent Virginia Commonwealth University found Kaine up 23 percentage points, while a Roanoke College poll taken a few weeks later found Kaine up 17 points.