The controversy over Sen. Tim Kaine’s remarks during Riley Barnes’ confirmation hearing shows just how far some Democrats are willing to go in rewriting the very foundation of America’s principles.
Kaine claimed that the idea of rights coming from the Creator — not the government — was “extremely troubling” and even likened it to the theology of Iran’s theocratic regime.
That comparison is not only historically ignorant, it is fundamentally backwards. Iran is a state where government claims absolute authority in God’s name. The American founding, by contrast, was a radical rejection of that kind of tyranny. Our Founders made clear that rights exist before government, that they are “unalienable,” and that government exists only to secure them. To confuse those two couldn’t be more dangerous.
FOUNDING: Senator Tim Kaine made a full throated rejection of our founding principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence. pic.twitter.com/Dt0XlOllHI
— @amuse (@amuse) September 4, 2025
Sen. Ted Cruz was quick to remind Kaine that this “radical and dangerous notion,” as Kaine put it, was in fact the bedrock principle of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. And Bishop Robert Barron — a Catholic leader whose voice carries real weight — cut even deeper, saying Kaine’s comments were “very troubling” given Jefferson and Madison’s legacy in Kaine’s own state of Virginia.
Barron rightly pointed out that when governments view themselves as the source of rights, those rights become privileges — handed out or taken away at will. That is precisely how totalitarian systems of the 20th century operated, from communism in the East to fascism in the West.
I’d like to respond to a disturbing contention from Senator Tim Kaine, during a recent confirmation hearing. pic.twitter.com/hvaYlQQybi
— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) September 4, 2025
Barron also tied Kaine’s comments to a broader trend: the ongoing marginalization of religion in American public life. We’ve seen Democrats scoff at prayer in the wake of tragedies, with figures like Jen Psaki openly mocking “thoughts and prayers” after mass shootings.
What begins as ridicule toward expressions of faith often ends as outright hostility toward the very principles — like God-given rights — that faith has anchored for centuries.
