Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) twice avoided assuring voters that running mate Hillary Clinton's budget will not add $200 billion to the national debt during an interview Thursday on CNN's New Day.
Host Alisyn Camerota played a video clip from the previous night's debate in which Clinton claimed that her plan does "not add a penny to the national debt. I take that very seriously."
Camerota followed that clip with a report from the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which rated Clinton's claim as false. The committee found that Clinton's plan would actually increase the national debt by $200 billion over a decade.
When Camerota asked Kaine to comment, he avoided agreeing with Clinton's statement and suggested that the costs of Clinton's financial plan cannot be reliably predicted.
"These are not always matters of just complete mathematical certainty," he said.
Kaine did mention that the Clinton campaign has identified revenue sources to pay for her proposals, but immediately steered the conversation toward Clinton's opponent, Donald Trump. He pointed out that the committee report determined "the Trump plan would increase the national debt not by hundreds of billions of dollars, but by 5 trillion dollars, blowing a massive hole in the debt."
Camerota challenged Kaine to explain the discrepancies between Clinton's statement and the committee's findings.
"Yes, his is more, but still, how can voters believe her plan, where she says it wouldn't increase by a penny, when this outfit says no, that's wrong, it's actually 200 billion?" Camerota asked.
Kaine evaded the question a second time, instead denigrating the Trump plan, which, according to the report, is expected to increase the national debt by 25 times the amount that Clinton's plan will.
However, despite having just cited the committee's findings, Kaine then questioned the committee's reliability as a source.
"Just because this group says that, they're not the umpire, they're not calling balls and strikes and everybody agrees that they're right. They're doing their own estimate," he said.
Kaine again stressed that the Clinton campaign has "tried to put revenue sources on the table" and returned to presenting Clinton's plan as the lesser of two evils.
"In terms of how they compare the plans, the comparison is stark, that our plan is much more fiscally responsible than the Trump plan with respect to the debt," he concluded.