Democrats in Congress know they can come on CNN and unload their anti-war talking points without any fear of pushback. See Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) on Wednesday's The Source with Kaitlan Collins on CNN. The questions were open-ended, and there were no interruptions or "fact checking in real time."
Here's the kind of softballs Collins was asking: "What do you make of what's played out in the last 24 hours? Do you think that the United States is in a better position right now?" Kaine sounded like Iran -- the world's largest supporter of terrorism -- has been a rational actor while Trump is irrational:
KAINE: The U.S. is trying to get a negotiation done to control Iran's nuclear program. It was controlled under the Obama administration, until President Trump tore up a diplomatic deal. And many of us told him at the time, If you make diplomacy impossible, you will make war inevitable. And so now, U.S. troops are dying, others are being injured, civilians are being injured, and now we're trying to have a negotiation to return to a status quo that we had with diplomacy.
This is not only an illegal war, it's an incredibly foolish one, and I've got Virginians paying $1 more at the pump every time they get a gallon of gas. We buy 8 million gallons of gas a day in Virginia. That's $8 million a day that we are spending that we weren't before this war. And that's happening all over the United States and all over the world.
So look, I'm glad they're negotiating. They've gone in and destroyed all the China in the China shop, and now they're talking with the owner of the shop about, Well, maybe we should talk about how to put it back together. You shouldn't have destroyed it without a plan to begin with.
Unsurprisingly, Collins challenged none of Kaine's claims. She did not mention that in June of 2025, the IAEA reported Iran was in violation of the JCPOA. She did not mention that Iran has attacked civilian targets and infrastructure inside various Middle Eastern countries, aside from Israel.
Eventually, Collins turned the focus to Lebanon, and set Kaine up perfectly, without mentioning the terrorists of Hezbollah, and making Israel the bad guy.
COLLINS: They're trying to get a cease fire in Lebanon to get Israel to stop. I mean, that would be a big deal, obviously, if the United States does constrain Israel or gets them to stop it that way. Bernie Sanders, his resolution to block arms sales to Israel, some of them, it's failed again in the Senate, but it has more support for more Democrats than other resolutions that he tried to pass recently. Why do you think more of your fellow Democrats are now saying, we're not going to vote to send some of these weapons to Israel?
KAINE: : We should provide defensive weapons to Israel so they can protect their civilians. But we should not provide offensive weapons that kill other civilians in Gaza or Lebanon or elsewhere. We had a first vote on this, Caitlin, in November of 2024, and we got 17 votes. We've had subsequent votes that got 20 and 27, and now we're up to 40. And what this is showing is, while Israel has been a security partner in the United States, we're very, very tired of them using U.S. weapons to carry out offensive operations that lead to mass civilian deaths.
Viewers were not informed that Hezbollah uses civilians as human shields, or that shortly after Hezbollah entered the war with Iran by bombing Israeli civilian targets, Lebanon's President warned that Hezbollah could turn his country into Gaza And the Washington Post reported, "Shiite Muslims in Lebanon who form Hezbollah’s base of political and popular support are increasingly furious with the Iranian-backed militant group for dragging them into another war." To Kaine and Collins, Hezbollah does not exist. Kaine then ignorantly concluded.
KAINE: Israel and Lebanon are next door neighbors, and they have to be able to manage their own relationships.... Neighbors have to learn how to get along with one another without expecting the United States to come in and provide bombs and bulldozers.
Kaine is just doing what you expect Democrats to do, and unfortunately the same may be said for Collins, who let it all go without scrutiny. She did the same in February, saying nothing while Minneapolis Mayor Frey called ICE agents "roving gangs" going after brown people, and last September remained silent as Philly D.A. Larry Krasner claimed Trump's "in favor of fascism, he's in favor of ending democracy," and "he doesn't want to give up information on his own involvement in a pedophile ring."
Shameful.
