Kaine concerned by tone of Trump campaign

CEDAR RAPIDS - Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine called Rudy Giuliani's comparison of Hillary and Bill Clinton to a mafia crime family 'disconnected to reality.”

Kaine, who paid a surprise visit to Brewhemia in the NewBo neighborhood of Cedar Rapids Thursday morning, said he feels badly for Giuliani when he hears his comments.

'Somebody who had a good public service record, he's just specializing in really over-the-top stuff,” Kaine told The Gazette after shaking hands and visiting with the coffeehouse patrons. 'I worry about him.”

Kaine, who did a similar walk-around in Iowa City Wednesday night, made small talk with Brewhemia patrons and Democratic supporters.

'It was really exciting to get a chance to talk to hopefully the next vice president of the United States,” Jill LaGrange of Cedar Rapids said. A second-year students at Kirkwood Community College, LaGrange asked Kaine for advice.

'He told me the most important thing is to help each other,” she said.

Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and federal prosecutor, told a Republican audience in Hiawatha Wednesday that electing Hillary Clinton would be like having a 'criminal organization take over the White House.”

'That's what Clinton Inc., is - a criminal organization,” he said about relationship between the Clintons, their public roles and the Clinton Foundation.

That contrasts with the Clinton-Kaine campaign's positive vision for the country, the Virginia senator said.

'We're going to have a lot of healing to do as a nation and it doesn't get easier when people make outrageous comments like that,” Kaine said. 'The Clintons have been great public servants. The Clinton Foundation serves people around the world in the best tradition of American (non-governmental organizations).”

Without directly tying Giuliani and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump to the fatal shootings early Wednesday of two police officers in Des Moines and Urbandale, Kaine suggested their rhetoric is dangerous.

The accused shooter, Scott Michael Greene, reportedly has a history of racially charged encounters and has faced a harassment charge for directing a racial slur toward another a man and threatening to kill him.

'You don't want to draw too direct a line, but you worry about it,” said Kaine, who canceled a Des Moines area appearance Wednesday because of the shootings. 'This whole notion that the election is rigged, you know, it basically is preaching a disrespect for authority. If you preach a disrespect for authority the more likely it is that people will take action, even actions of violence, against authority.”

A tenet of American democracy is acceptance of election outcomes 'and then we peacefully transition,” Kaine added.

'When someone calls that into question, it's like they are taking the central pillar of the whole thing and trying to pull it down.”

The Trump campaign was not immediately available for comment.