Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine claimed ignorance on Sunday morning when CNN's Jake Tapper asked him about an excerpt from a speech where Hillary Clinton called for open borders.
On Friday, Wikileaks released a trove of emails that were hacked from Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, including transcripts of paid speeches she gave to Wall Street banks.
Jake Tapper read the excerpt from Clinton's speech to the Brazilian bank Banco Itau, where she advocated for open borders.
"My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders."
Kaine responded by dismissing the Wikileaks documents and saying that he does not think the campaign can "dignify" the transcripts and assume it is all factual.
"Hillary's position on policy on markets and trade is very plain, which is we'll do trade deals but only if they meet three criteria. Do they increase Americans jobs? Do they increase American wages and are they good for national security? If they are and if we can enforce them, then trade deals are okay, buy if not, we can't embrace them. When Hillary was a U.S. Senator, she voted for some trade deals when they met her standards, but she voted against others when they didn't," Kaine sad.
Tapper followed up and asked Kaine whether he was disputing the accuracy of the Wikileaks documents and whether Clinton made these statements.
Kaine said that he has no way of knowing the accuracy of the documents that Wikileaks released and then pivoted to talking about how the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper indicated that these leaks had been traced to the Russian government.
"If that is, in fact, true, you cannot accept as gospel truth everything that they might put in a document, but you didn't ask about the document, you asked me what Hillary Clinton's position was," Kaine said.
Tapper reworded the question and asked Kaine whether Clinton told the Brazilian bankers that open borders was her dream.
"I have no way of knowing that. I have no way of knowing that," Kaine said.
"Well, you could ask her," Tapper said.
Kaine then said that there are thousands of documents and that he hasn't asked her. He then quickly changed the subject back to trade.