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Tim Kaine Says He Doesn’t Understand Why Fellow Leftists are Angry Over Karmelo Anthony Sentence

tim-kaine-says-he-doesn’t-understand-why-fellow-leftists-are-angry-over-karmelo-anthony-sentence
Tim Kaine Says He Doesn’t Understand Why Fellow Leftists are Angry Over Karmelo Anthony Sentence

Commentary

Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, gave a surprisingly sane answer to a Fox News reporter asking about outrage over Texas teen Karmelo Anthony's conviction and sentencing.

Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, gave a surprisingly sane answer to a Fox News reporter asking about outrage over Texas teen Karmelo Anthony’s conviction and sentencing. (Drew Angerer – AFP / Getty Images)

 By C. Douglas Golden  June 12, 2026 at 12:28pm

Sen. Tim Kaine was once his party’s vice presidential candidate. He now doesn’t seem to understand quite where it’s gone, or how it’s gotten there in the 10 years since then.

Talking to Fox News (!) after the verdict in Karmelo Anthony case in Texas, Kaine — who is now serving his third term in the upper chamber as a Democrat from Virginia and was selected as Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016 — seems to have trouble understanding why so many in his own party and his own wing of American politics think murder isn’t murder if the perpetrator is black and the victim is white.

Anthony, now 19, was convicted earlier this week of stabbing teenager Austin Metcalf at a track meet in Frisco, Texas, in 2025, after a confrontation initiated by Anthony when he walked into Metcalf’s team’s tent.

The death penalty or life in prison weren’t on the table for Anthony, because he was a minor when he committed the crime. However, the jury took only three hours to convict, and he was given 35 years behind bars, with at least 17 to be served before he’s eligible for parole.

Given the cold-blooded nature of the crime and the violent threat that Anthony poses, this seems fair and right to the sane. And then there’s Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who has said that Anthony was a “scared black boy” and needed more “mercy” from the court, among other ridiculous clips and claims:

Rep. Crockett: “Black women live in agony every day that I promise the Metcalfs had never lived through” pic.twitter.com/GVielzMf51

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 10, 2026

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D) suggests that she also would have stabbed Austin Metcalf: pic.twitter.com/TBn3txFSAi

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 10, 2026

Nor, in fact, was she the only one spreading lies about the subject — including activist individuals and organizations affiliated with the American left — of there being an “all-white jury” that convicted and sentenced Anthony. (It wasn’t all-white, not by a long stretch.)

Dominique Alexander is done. Irrelevant.

He has done nothing but race-bait and lie throughout this entire case.

It was NOT an all-white jury. The jury selection process happened exactly as it was supposed to. Karmelo is going to prison because his actions were indefensible. pic.twitter.com/gnNHqyCPTY

— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) June 10, 2026

This is what happens when you have an all white jury. Thus, is the reason why the white judge didn’t want cameras in the courtroom. #FreeKarmeloAnthony

— IG: RahiemShabazz (@rahiemshabazz) June 9, 2026

Kaine didn’t seem to get it when a Fox News reporter asked him about the outrage over the verdict on his side.

“I have a hard time understanding why they would say that,” Kaine said about claims that the verdict was racially charged.

Do you think Karmelo Anthony’s 35-year prison sentence was too lenient?

All right, then: What about specific claims by Crockett and others?

“I know what they’re saying, but I have a hard time understanding,” Kaine said.

Well, at least now we know why we don’t hear much from Tim Kaine anymore.

Murder is murder is murder. A Texas jury proved that this week, and proved that no amount of race-bait pettifogging could change their minds.

But his party? They still live in the days when they can stop hiding behind the mask of “affordability” and “unity” and start talking about DEI and defund again. Crockett — who has lost the Senate primary in Texas and has had her seat redistricted out of existence — is talking about it because she doesn’t have anything to lose. This is what they’re all thinking behind the scenes, though.

So if you’re wondering about why you haven’t heard from Tim Kaine anymore, it’s that he has “a hard time understanding” this bedrock fact.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).

Birthplace

Morristown, New Jersey

Education

Catholic University of America

Languages Spoken

English, Spanish

Topics of Expertise

American Politics, World Politics, Culture

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