Kaine Tells Florida Politicians to Stop 'Social Darwinism Me First' Trump

— -- Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine met with Florida mayors and elected officials today, encouraging them to deliver the state for his running mate Hillary Clinton by contrasting the Clinton-Kaine ticket from what he called a "Social Darwinism me first" Donald Trump.

Kaine made the remarks in Pembroke Pines, Florida. In attendance were Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee.

"We are running against a guy who is kind of a social Darwinism, me first everybody else move aside guy and that's a sharp distinction," Kaine said.

Kaine did not repeat remarks he made Friday that linked Trump to "Ku Klux Klan values." Instead, he attacked Trump for questioning the NATO alliance and discussed America’s fight against ISIS.

"We are battling ISIL, we are beating them on the battlefield. They are shrinking, shrinking, shrinking but they are trying to do one-off attacks here, there and everywhere. How do you stop those? You stop those attacks by sharing intelligence. Who do you share intelligence with? Your allies," Kaine said.

He added, "If you tear up NATO and say now we don't need alliances anymore, who are you going to share intelligence with? So there is a sharp distinction between a Hillary Clinton, who understand the value of alliances and making us stronger, and a Donald Trump, who seems to think building walls and tearing up alliances is a path to strength. It's a path to Isolation and it's a path to weakness."

Kaine described the importance of Florida to the mayors and elected officials as crucial to a Clinton-Kaine victory.

"If we win Florida, it's over. Help us do that," Kaine said.

A NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll released this month showed the Clinton campaign with a slight lead in the Sunshine State. Kaine said that good poll numbers in other battleground states means that they can devote more energy to Florida. Kaine said that Virginia and Colorado have moved into "safer territory," while Florida is "so close."

"What that means is the states that are real close, now we can really spend a lot of time here, and Florida is one of those states. Not only massive on the electoral vote side but also because it is so close. It's a place where we are going to spend a lot of time. And there is nobody, nobody who can be more of a guarantor of our success here in Florida winning the electoral votes and by producing a margin for Hillary winning House seats, winning a Senate seat, winning seats in local legislature elections, there is nobody who can do that better than you," Kaine told the elected officials.

To stress the importance of Florida, Kaine brought up the 2000 election between George W. Bush and John Kerry, when the state's votes were recounted.

"Of course in Florida, it's an easier sell to tell people that their vote matters because you were so pivotal to one of the most amazing and even still kind of surreal elections in the history of this country in 2000 where every vote did matter in a way that frankly changed the history of this country in terms of things that happened that might not have happened and things that didn't happen," Kaine said.

Kaine's appearance in Pembroke Pines was part of a two-day swing through the state where he attended public events as well as private fundraisers. Kaine will head back to the state next week.