President Donald Trump's use of Twitter and other actions are "sort of shocking," but his comments about wiretapping, his inauguration crowd and more should not be surprising, former Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine said Wednesday.
"This is a guy who said [Sen.] Ted Cruz's dad was involved in the JFK assassination on the campaign trail, and he got a pass on that," the Virginia senator told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, after co-host Mika Brzezinski asked him for his opinion about Trump's recent claims about former President Barack Obama and wiretapping at Trump Tower.
"He is saying he was wiretapped or his inaugural crowd was bigger than it was, it shouldn't surprise us," Kaine continued. "But it is shocking. You don't want to see that behavior in the president."
He said he thinks Congress needs to step up and be an independent, strong branch, and he also felt that way during the Obama administration.
"I was tough on President Obama and tough on Congress for not doing a war authorization under the Obama administration," said Kaine. "I wanted Congress to up its game in the previous administration and we definitely have to up our game in this one because, you know, our citizens and folks around the world have got to see some adult behavior. [We're] not seeing it out of the White House right now."
Kaine said he's also concerned about what effect Trump's actions will have worldwide.
"I was over at the Vatican about two weeks ago, dealing with the Vatican on refugee issues, and then was in London talking to some of our allies there, and this Russia issue has everybody so concerned across Europe and in the Middle East too," said Kaine, referring to reports that Trump's campaign associates had been in contact with Russian agents.
Overseas, Kaine said, people are also wondering about reports from the nation's intelligence agencies that Russia was behind cyberhacking activities during the 2016 presidential election, and why "we didn't do much about it and now this president is trying to deny it."
"Here is the question they have for us," Kaine said. "'If you won't protect yourself when you're attacked, we know you won't protect us if we are attacked.'"
Kaine said he does believe there are some in the administration, like Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who are focused on building foreign relationships, and will have a "heavy burden" ahead of them, as will lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Kaine also said he does not believe a probe of connections with Russia can be turned back, even with a Senate Intelligence Committee that has a Republican majority.
"Even though I think the majority will probably make some efforts to slow it down, and the White House wants it stopped, we crossed a Rubicon when Gen. [Michael] Flynn resigned," said Kaine. "The Republicans were saying before that it was sour grapes about the election. That is so last year, guys, get over it."
In addition, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was caught up in the scandal, said Kaine, and has been asked to return to the Senate Judiciary Committee so it can ask him questions that he would have been asked before.
"The fact that it's in the White House means it's going to keep going forward," Kaine concluded.