Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine appeared on Monday's Morning Joe program to announce he signed up for the "Ready for Hillary" effort, which is intended to lay the groundwork for a 2016 Clinton run. Surprisingly Kaine's support of the former Secretary of State faced a challenge from liberal co-host Mika Brzezinski who peppered Kaine with questions about Clinton, asking, "What’s the message? What does she stand for?"
From the start Brzezinski greeted Kaine with skepticism
Brzezinski: I take it you are ready for Hillary.
Kaine: I am ready for Hillary. I signed onto the ‘Ready for Hillary’ organization’s effort on Saturday at a breakfast they sponsored in South Carolina, and I’m very excited about it.
Brzezinski: Ok, so I’m going to give you 20 seconds. I’m putting on a clock. What’s her message?
Kaine: Yep. The message is she has the best experience, both domestically and internationally. She has got the accumulated backbone, wisdom, judgment, scar tissue from a long period in public life to be the best President of the United States beginning in 2017.
Brzezinski : Okay. Okay.
After John Heilemann,who recently moved from New York Magazine to Bloomberg News, pointed out that Kaine made the 20-second limit, Mika went back on the attack,
Brzezinski : Okay. You made the time limit. You made some really good points about her, which I would agree with in many ways. But it’s not a message. What’s the message? What does she stand for?
Kaine: I think "best qualified to be president" is the message. "Best qualified" is the message. You know, Mika, this is something I thought a lot about, and I basically decided on two things. First, of everybody who is out there who is running or could run or thinking about running, she is the best person to be the 45th president because of that deep background in domestic and international policy and also because of the web of relationships she has with global leaders, public and private. But the second fact that is an important one is that it’s going to be hard to get there. It’s going to be hard because being president is always hard. It’s going to be hard because 2016 campaigning is facing off against a Super PAC sludge factory. And it’s going to be hard because look, if it were easy for a woman to be president, there would have been a woman president. There’d be more than 18 percent women in Congress. There’d be more than 5 percent women Fortune 500 CEOS. So, if she’s the right person and if it’s going to be hard, the best thing I can do is get out early and start pushing, and that’s why I did it.
