Tim Kaine When Asked About Killing Hitler: ‘God Grants Life, and God Should Take It Away.’

The RNC is hitting Tim Kaine on his opposition for the death penalty, and his past legal work, representing murderers and rapists, seeking to prevent the death penalty: 

Did Tim Kaine say Adolf Hitler didn’t deserve the death penalty? Not quite. His answer is better characterized as “maybe”:

Michael Hardy, Times-Dispatch editorial board: You couldn’t conceive of a case where the person, because of his behavior and criminal conduct, deserved the death penalty? What about Adolf Hitler, do you think he should be executed? Should have been executed? Joseph Stalin? Idi Amin?

Tim Kaine: Well you know, when you say deserve, it’s…(long pause)…you know, God grants life, and God should take it away. Horrible heinous things deserve incredible punishment, you bet. God grants life, God should take it away, that’s my religious belief. Except in the kind of rare instance of self defense, I mean, a person who, you know, kills someone in self defense, or a nation that, that wages a just war, that is essentially to defend itself or, or others, that would be an exception but…

Hardy: Your conviction is so deep that you cannot name one person in history, because of his malefactions and criminal behavior, deserved the death penalty?

Tim Kaine: Well no, I, the way I answered your question is that they may deserve, you, they may deserve it, of course they may for doing something heinous, they don’t deserve to live in civilized society, they may deserve the death penalty. You know, I look at the world, most nations have decided not to have a death penalty, and, and many are very safe, I don’t think, I don’t think it’s needed to be safe.

For the past three decades, a majority of Americans have supported the death penalty for those convicted of murder. In Gallup’s 2015 survey, 61 percent supported it and 37 percent opposed it.