Jake Tapper Asks Sen. Tim Kaine ‘Why is Your Party So Staggeringly Unpopular?’
If Kaine were an honest man, he might have admitted that his party’s policies played a role. … Then again, Kaine is not an honest man.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union program on Sunday. Jake Tapper, the show’s co-host and one of the most highly partisan journalists in the business, asked Kaine why his party is so staggeringly unpopular with the public. And he got a staggeringly stupid response.
Considering that both Tapper and Kaine reside on the same side of the political divide, it seemed a rather odd question to ask – at least phrased in that way.
Tapper began by citing the Quinnipiac poll that caused such a stir last week. The survey found that 57% of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, and just 31% had a favorable view. He noted, “This is the worst number for the Democratic Party since Quinnipiac University began asking the question. And it’s not an outlier. Our recent CNN poll found a 33-year-low favorable rating with the Democratic Party.”
Then he pounced, “Why is your party so staggeringly unpopular with the public?”
If Kaine were an honest man, he might have admitted that his party’s policies played a role. He could have pointed to the Biden administration’s open-border policy, reckless spending that drove prices sky-high, foreign policy blunders, or the fact that Democrats knowingly propped up a senile man to win the presidency in 2020, allowed him to remain in office for four years, and—until the jig was up after the infamous June debate—supported his bid for reelection.
Then again, Kaine is not an honest man. Here’s what he told Jake:
Jake, you know me. I’m a Virginian. I know one state well, not so well the other 49. In Virginia, we’ve gone from one of the most ruby red states in the country to now having put electoral votes behind Democrats five elections in a row. I just won my reelection by a sizable margin against Donald Trump’s handpicked Republican opponent and I’ll tell you how we’ve done it.
We focus on the economy. This is what we do in Virginia and I think sometimes national Democrats don’t. We focus on competent government and running the economy in a great way that focuses on innovation and advancement.
We have what we call a make, build, grow agenda. While the Republicans are talking about cutting taxes and cutting regulation, most people understand that tax cutting is just for the wealthiest. …
We talk about make, build, grow. We want to make it here, we want to build it here, and in ag and forestry, we want to grow it here. And the Dems have the results to back it up. It’s just that so often, Democratic candidates don’t emphasize that.
And so, yeah, the American public looks at standard campaigns. They don’t see Democrats advertising on the economy, which is their principal concern.
Let’s return to the bread and butter basics that people want to really focus on. And I think the Democrats can do well, especially when Donald Trump’s tariffs are driving up their prices every day.
Tapper points out the obvious. That Virginia has a Republican governor who defeated a former Democratic governor three years ago.
Kaine dismisses Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 defeat of Terry McAuliffe saying, “By 1.8 percent. The last two Republicans that won the governorship in Virginia won by comfortable double digits. Our governor is a Republican. He ran during a very good year to be a Republican, and he won barely.”
“We have a governor’s race this year in Virginia. We feel really, really good about our chances,” Kaine said. “I think the governor’s race in Virginia, November 2025 will be the first bellwether test of a Democratic comeback. And I’m feeling really, really good about that right now.”
WATCH: Jake Tapper asks Sen. Tim Kaine why Democrats are so unpopular.
“57 percent of the American people have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, only 31 percent favorable. This is the worst number for the Democratic Party since Quinnipiac University began asking the… pic.twitter.com/G6ghmxjxbh
— JOSH DUNLAP (@JDunlap1974) February 3, 2025
Kaine managed to speak for 90 seconds and say absolutely nothing of substance. He simply recited as many Democratic talking points as he could recall: ‘It’s our messaging. The tax cuts only benefit the wealthiest. We focus on the economy.‘ Even Tapper appeared disappointed with his response.
Democrats lost the election because of their collective unwillingness to acknowledge the failures of the past four years. Rather than addressing America’s challenges, they either ignored them or shifted the blame to Republicans. Since the November election, Democrats have found themselves in the political wilderness – where they will remain until they engage in some genuine soul-searching.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.

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Comments
Everybody feels free to say what only retirees have been able to say, now. Nobody’s getting canceled anymore.
I am not sure this is the case, a lot of undeserving people are going to be losing jobs and their shirts, which the deserve.
That is their problem for believing Democrat lies that there was a career in DEI for life.
“Undeserving people” are going to be losing jobs which “the [sic] deserve.”
Grammar doesn’t have to be your enemy.
Didn’t I have issues with you over at Instapundit, Leonard, you smug little prick?
The Dhimmi-crats — apparatchiks and their media shills/lapdogs/trained seals/stenographers, alike — are dumber than a box of rocks. Totally lacking in any scintilla of introspection, humility, intelligence and common sense.
Arrogance, narcissism, sanctimony and vindictiveness is all that these reprobates know. These fools are incapable of moderating their wretched Party’s ideological fanaticism even one iota, so wedded are they to their self-indulgent, coastal elitist obsessions (e.g., trannies, “green”/”climate change” diktats, illegal aliens, “DEI”/”ESG;” etc.).
I’m grateful, because it means that we’ll be blessed with a 12-year MAGA renaissance/Enlightenment, after tacking on J.D. Vance’s two presidential terms, to #47’s.
Paraphrased by Paula
Tapper: “How come nobody likes your party?”
Kaine: “Duh, I dunno.”
Kaine acts like the Dhimmi-crats’ allegedly wonderful platform has turned Virginia “blue,” when the answer has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with migration overflow from federal bureaucrats living in D.C. and Maryland, 99% of whom are Dhimmi-crats. Simple numbers. Northern Virginia is solidly blue, most of the rest of Virginia’s counties went for #47.
Actually, in Virginia, as with quite a few other “blue” states that he lost, #47 won a majority of the state’s counties, but, lost overall because the high population density in N. VA is too much for rural counties to overcome.
Yup.
I am dubious they are actually solid blue. The ballot fraud may make them solid blue, however.
Kaine should respond: “Because we don’t have enough censorship of misinformation. If we did, citizens would be more enlightened, and appreciate Dems as their true guidance.”
How can Democrats gain support when they refuse to tolerate the slightest opposition to their dogma? Who in their right mind wants a part of that?
I’d like Tapper to have asked Kaine to point out a single price increase that Trump’s (non-existant) tariffs at the time of the interview has caused. Even after the 10% goes into effect on China, there may be no increase, if the payers of the tariffs choose to eat the added cost for some time, or China cuts its prices.
“it seemed a rather odd question to ask”
Tapper has seen the elephant… of impending unemployment.
So my “In the Crapper with Tapper” show might become a reality?
I’m in.
Tapper asks “your” party. tapper is a left wing radical democrat. he might be registered as an independent but that is a complete ruse. he’s a radical democrat. period.
The reason the phrasing sounded odd is that Jake added the “y” to the “our”.
Jake, it’s YOUR party too, and YOU helped with spewing the lies you got charged with defamation.
That’s what made the questions so stupid. “Your” party?
The face of the Democrat mascot is actually the other end.
All of this is true, and he’s correct that Youngkin’s election was an outlier. But this part is not true:
No, Senator, I’ll tell you have you’ve done it. You’ve done it by spending fortunes of taxpayer money hiring public servants in DC, many of whom choose to live and vote in Virginia. You’ve turned northern Virginia into a suburb of DC, with people who vote as if they were in DC. And the more people live in that part of Virginia the more they can outvote the rest of the state. That’s how you achieved the “Virginia miracle” for your party, not by fixing the economy or by any other policy achievement in the state.
“One might ask the same of your network” replied Senator Kaine.
The Democrats ARE America’s main challenge. They are disturbed nihilists who are looking to destroy this nation. They do nothing but harm America and foment anti-Americanism as much as they are able.
Democrats’ platform is “Kill America”. Period. And they have a sizable percentage of takers in this (everyone who voted for Barky was voting for the end of America; that was what he represented) and they have lots and lots of mail-in ballots and drop-off boxes and dirty voter rolls, still. Lots and lots and lots.
Sort of like Squeaky Fromme asking Charles Manson why nobody likes our house parties.
Good old Squeaky. Another inept presidential assassin who never gets any credit for it.
She knew how to operate a 45. She didn’t have a round in the chamber and only 4 in the mag.
Tim Kaine.
Tim Walz
Anyone thinking that female Democrats running for president have a type?
David Hogg.
Remember, the first g in Hogg is silent.
Because the Democrats have learned nothing. No one is able to reform them from within. They are stuck virtue signaling how “diverse” they are to each other without offering anything to their constituency.
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