PITTSBURGH _ Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine's visit to Carnegie Mellon University Thursday began with a self-effacing joke. "My grades wouldn't have got me here," he said. "I had to (run for) vice president of the United States before I could come to Carnegie Mellon."
But by and large, his 45-minute speech picked up where his feisty performance on Tuesday night's vice presidential debate left off: criticizing Republican nominee Donald Trump for statements such as his assertion that taking advantage of tax breaks "makes me smart."
"I guess what he's saying about us is we're suckers," Kaine said outside CMU's Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall.
Trump himself will be in Ambridge on Monday, and Kaine observed that "Donald Trump knows, and we know too, that he's got to win Pennsylvania. ... We're not going to let that happen."
He sprinkled his remarks with appeals that targeted the many college-age people in the audience, which started at around 250 but grew to hundreds more. He pitched a series of proposals to reduce college costs, including the ability to refinance student loan debt.
"Do you know that in our country right now it is easier for Donald Trump to refinance the loan on his jet than it is for any of you to refinance your student loan debt?" he said. "There is something fundamentally wrong about that."
Kaine's debate performance against Indiana Gov. Mike Pence got mixed reviews. But he made no apologies Thursday. Repeatedly, he said, he brought up Trump's track record and said, " 'I can't believe that Governor Pence will defend this.' ... (A)gain and again, when Governor Pence had that choice, you could kind of see the wheels turning: 'Do I defend it? I don't think I can defend it. Let me change the subject.' "
The visit coincided with a tide of positive polls for his running mate, Hillary Clinton. In the wake of her own debate with Trump last week, a Monmouth University poll showed Clinton up 10 points among voters in Pennsylvania. A Franklin & Marshall College poll showed her leading by 9.
But Kaine's campus appearance reflects the fact that, while younger voters are critical to Democratic hopes this November, there are concerns about their enthusiasm. That's due in part to the fact that Kaine and Clinton are both more centrist than, say, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose upstart Democratic primary challenge attracted many younger voters.
CMU student Matt Jannetti, a public policy major, said Kaine was a smart vice-presidential choice in many ways: "He's a popular governor and senator from a swing state," Virginia. But Kaine "doesn't hit a lot of the progressive wing of the party."
During an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interview after his speech, however, Kaine seemed optimistic about the campaign's prospects with millennial voters.
"On issues that matter to young people, we're in a good position," he said, ticking off a series of topics: college affordability, raising the minimum wage, equal pay for women, immigration reform and addressing climate change. "So that's what we need to spend time talking about for the next 33 days."
