Senator Tim Kaine has acknowledged a
missed opportunity to debate Indiana Governor Mike Pence on his
opposition to LGBT rights during Tuesday's vice presidential debate.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was among those
who criticized Kaine for not going after his GOP rival on the issue.
“Mike Pence is really famous for
having pushed the most aggressive pro-LGBT-discrimination bill in the
country, having to really embarrassingly walk it back,” Maddow said
Tuesday in a post debate wrap up. “When he was in Congress, he
said that HIV and AIDS funding should not be dispersed unless it was
also spent – federal dollars spent to try to cure people from being
gay.”
Pence has a “really radical position”
on LGBT issues, she
added. “It didn't come up at all.”
During an appearance on CNN, Kaine
explained that he would have loved to debate Pence on the issue but
ran out of time.
“Well it is the case there was no
question that was asked that dealt with Governor Pence or just the
issue of LGBT equality,” Kaine
said. “Hillary [Clinton] and I are strongly for LGBT equality,
including marriage equality, and a [Donald] Trump/Pence ticket is
deeply against it, especially Governor Pence.”
“Yeah, that was an opportunity. I
would have loved to have had a 93-minute debate instead of a
90-minute debate,” he added.