Kaine: I still support Hyde Amendment, but wouldn’t protect it as VP

Democrat vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine continued to send mixed messages regarding his stance on taxpayer funding for abortion in his latest interview with CNN on Sunday.

Kaine is a former “pro-life Democrat” who supported some incremental pro-life measures as Governor of Virginia, such as parental notification and banning partial-birth abortion. But he ran for Senate vowing to protect Roe v. Wade, and once there, established a 100 percent pro-abortion voting record.

Once he officially became former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Kaine declared he was “very strongly supportive” of the “right” to abortion.

Last week, Live Action News reported that the Clinton campaign said Kaine privately assured Clinton that he supports her position on repealing the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding for elective abortion–a reversal from where he stood just three weeks earlier.

Just a few days ago, Kaine told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook misspoke, and that “my position is the same; I support the Hyde Amendment.”

However, he went on to say that “As the vice president I have to get comfortable with the notion that I can have my personal views but I’m going to support the president of the United States and I will.”

In practice, that means that Kaine’s “personal view” is irrelevant and that as vice president he would not oppose Clinton if she moved to repeal Hyde. Theoretically he would have the power to cast the deciding Senate vote in the event of a tie, but in practice he would be unlikely to publicly act against Clinton’s agenda on an issue important to her base.