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Tim Kaine associates Donald Trump's values with KKK's during FAMU rally

 
Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks to students Friday on the Florida A&M University campus in Tallahassee. [Mark Wallheiser | Associated Press]
Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks to students Friday on the Florida A&M University campus in Tallahassee. [Mark Wallheiser | Associated Press]
Published Aug. 27, 2016

TALLAHASSEE — Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine is associating Donald Trump's values with those of the Ku Klux Klan.

Kaine made some of his most pointed comments to date about Trump at a voter registration rally Friday at Florida A&M University, a historically black university in Tallahassee.

Kaine said: "Ku Klux Klan values, David Duke values, Donald Trump values are not American values." Duke is a former Ku Klux Klan leader."

When a reporter asked if he thinks Trump is a racist, Kaine said he didn't know Trump. But Kaine said the Republican presidential candidate has clearly made "bigoted" comments.

Kaine urged the students to help get out the vote, noting Florida may be the closest swing state this election.

It was his third trip to the Sunshine State — but first to Tallahassee — since joining Clinton's ticket last month, he said.

On Saturday, Kaine is scheduled to meet with local mayors and elected officials at Southwest Focal Point senior center in Pembroke Pines. That meeting will be closed to the public. Kaine also is scheduled to go on a small-business tour in Miami Lakes, but that appearance will not be open to the public.

As the Democratic U.S. senator from Virginia took the stage at Florida A&M University on Friday afternoon, he donned a Rattlers hat and somewhat sheepishly hissed a few times while imitating two fangs with his fingers — an attempt at the university's "Rattler Strike," which charmed a cheering crowd.

During a 15-minute address, Kaine urged FAMU students to not be mere bystanders in this year's election. He encouraged them to volunteer, vote and make sure they and their friends are registered to vote.

"You have a superb reputation — of any university — of student activism and of getting people to understand the critical importance of voting," Kaine told the few hundred students gathered in the blazing summer heat outside FAMU's student union as part of their weekly "Set Friday" event.

Kaine said Clinton's campaign is launching a nationwide initiative with historically black colleges and universities, like FAMU, to encourage voter registration.

"We want FAMU to lead the way," Kaine said to more applause from the crowd.

"We've seen in states all over the country significant efforts by governors and Legislatures to narrow down the right to vote, to narrow down early voting, to increase ID requirements — to basically make it tougher for people to vote," Kaine said.

He added: "For anybody who cares about small-D 'democracy,' the efforts of state officials to put burdens in the way, reduce participation and do it in a discriminatory way has to call us to righteous action, righteous organization, so we can show those tactics won't succeed."

Kaine also took a few minutes to tout Clinton's credentials and to emphasize the "fundamental differences" between her and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

As an example, Kaine condemned Trump for "being behind the scurrilous and, I would say, bigoted notion that President Obama wasn't even born in this country."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.