Senator Tim Kaine, who served as Governor of Virginia during the economic crisis, criticized presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over recent revelations that Trump actively rooted for the housing market to collapse ahead of the Great Recession, calling his candidacy “too big a risk for our country.”
Last week, CNN reported that, in 2006, Trump actually rooted for the housing and real estate market to fail so he could try to “make a lot of money.” Yesterday, NBC News reported that Trump said he was “excited” for the housing bubble to burst, one year before the U.S. economy was hit by the worst recession since the Great Depression.
“As Governor during the recession, I saw firsthand the pain this crisis caused for Virginia families,” Sen. Kaine said. “Donald Trump’s statements not only offer a troubling glimpse into how he thinks about the U.S. economy, but they are also part of a larger pattern of Trump putting himself first.
“These comments suggest that Trump looked at a calamity and decided — when others suffer, it’s an opportunity for me to pad my pocket,” Kaine continued. “We don’t need a president who puts himself above others or excuses himself from the rules that others must follow. That’s also what’s so disturbing about Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns as other presidential candidates have done. Our great presidents put the country first, not themselves. And that’s why the Trump candidacy is too big a risk for our country.”
While Trump was cheering on economic calamity, as many as 235,568 Virginia families lost their homes as a result of the crisis. Housing values plummeted by 22 percent, wiping out the savings of families across the Commonwealth.
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