Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) said the Democratic Party needed to "throw away all all the broad brushes" Sunday and be precise in its condemnation of certain groups when asked about Hillary Clinton's remarks last year that half of Donald Trump's supporters belonged in a "basket of deplorables."
In the aftermath of white nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Va., and how political parties needed to respond to hate groups, CBS "Face The Nation" host John Dickerson asked Kaine about his former running mate's comments in 2016 that half of Trump's voters were deplorable and "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic."
"It overshot the mark. It painted with a broad brush," Dickerson said. "People felt that she was talking about them. How does the Democratic Party not paint with that broad brush in these conversations that are going to happen?"
"John, this is a really important question. We ought to throw away all the broad brushes," Kaine said. "We need to very precise."
Clinton was panned for the remarks and subsequently apologized for them, vowing at the same time to continue to call out "bigotry" in Trump's campaign.
Kaine said the "intolerable" needed to be condemned, like white supremacists for chanting "blood and soil" or "Jews will not replace us" in Charlottesville.
"You can't be polite and kind about that behavior or certainly about murder or violence. You have to condemn it," Kaine said. "But you have to be very specific about what you're condemning, and it is very important to be absolutely clear and condemn what's indefensible, but you have to do it in a way that suggests that you're open to dialogue with people who have different points of view than you do."