Screenshot/CNN
Tim Kaine.
Kaine, Hillary Clinton's running mate and a senator from Virginia, explained Friday on CNN that Trump's mix-up of the two at a press conference earlier this week made him "scratch his head."
"Her running mate Tim Kaine, who by the way did a terrible job in New Jersey - first act he did in New Jersey was ask for a $4 billion tax increase and he was not very popular in New Jersey and he still isn't," Trump said during a Wednesday press conference.
Kean was the Republican governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990. Kaine did propose $4 billion in tax increases when he served as governor of Virginia from 2006-2010, according to PolitiFact, but did not do so all at once. Kaine is, and Kean was, well-liked in their states.
"Two days ago he did a press conference and he told everybody what a lousy governor of New Jersey I was," Kaine told CNN host Jake Tapper in response to being asked what he thought of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg insinuating that Trump was insane during his speech to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
"To be honest, you were," Tapper joked back.
"Yeah well, I was a no show governor of New Jersey when I was governor of Virginia," Kaine responded.
"Okay, look, the guy's new to it, and we're a big country and there are 50 states and New Jersey's different than Virginia," he continued. "I guess you've got to let him climb the learning curve."
He said he doesn't "know anything about his sanity" because he's "never met him."
"But somebody who'd mistake New Jersey for Virginia or Virginia for New Jersey, I just scratch my head," he continued.
Tapper clarified that Trump seemed to mean Kean, who's name is pronounced the same as Kaine's.
"Tom Kean was governor of New Jersey and he finished his term 26 years ago," Kaine said. "I mean I don't know, I was 5 years old then and I would've been a bad governor. Nah, I was older than 5 but I would've been a bad governor. At age 5 I would've been a bad governor."