RNC Chief Strategist Sean Spicer shit the bed yesterday when he tweeted a story describing his latest attack on Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine as a "Willie Horton-Style" attack.
Spicer and the GOP deleted the tweets after they were informed by the entire internet that calling something a Willie Horton-Style attack is not a good thing, but Spicer continued the same line of attack this morning during his appearance on CNN.
The "Willie Horton-Style" attack is an attack on Kaine for being a defense lawyer who represented inmates on death row.
“That's a constitutional right,” Spicer admitted, before separating Kaine from that tradition.
That's a constitutional right, but...
“There's a difference between -- he went out and advocated and talked about and tried to get them off the hook for certain things," he argued.
“It’s not just about the death penalty,” Spicer added. “It's about making sure they served the least amount of time possible. That's a big difference. You know, it's amazing how quick everyone runs to Tim Kaine's defense.”
Here's where this becomes extra ironic.
When he was a young civil rights lawyer, Kaine represented death row inmates pro-bono because his deeply held religious beliefs compelled him to do so. The GOP typically lionizes and vigorously defends people who take a stand to defend their "deeply held beliefs," but apparently not in this case.
During his time as governor, Kaine commuted the sentence of one death row inmate because he was "mentally unfit" to be executed and was given a life sentence instead.
If Mike Pence is dumb enough to bring this up during tonight's vice presidential debate, Kaine will be ready for it because he's been through this before. The GOP launched a similar attack against Kaine when he ran for governor and, as you know, he won.