Sen. Tim Kaine avoided responding to a question during the vice presidential debate Tuesday about Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.
Moderator Elaine Quijano posed a question to Kaine about Clinton’s trustworthiness—an area she’s struggled with among voters—asking whether he believed Americans’ distrust of the former secretary of State is related to her email scandal.
“On the campaign trail, you praised Secretary Clinton’s character, including her commitment to public service. Yet 60 percent of voters don’t think she’s trustworthy,” Quijano said. “Why do so many people distrust her? Is it because they have questions about her emails and the Clinton Foundation?”
Instead of answering her question, however, Kaine laid out why he personally trusts Clinton.
“Hillary Clinton has that passion, from a time as a kid in a Methodist youth group in the suburbs of Chicago, she has been focused on serving others with a special focus on empowering families and kids,” Kaine responded. “As a civil rights lawyer in the south, with the Children’s Defense Fund, First Lady of Arkansas and this country, Senator, Secretary of State, it’s always been about putting others first. And that’s a sharp contrast with Donald Trump, Donald Trump always puts himself first.”