In Las Vegas, Kaine slaps Trump over Nevada pronunciation, Yucca response

By Megan Messerly

Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016 | 9:20 p.m.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine pilloried Donald Trump Thursday evening over the Republican presidential candidate's repeated mispronunciation of “Nevada."

“It’s still Nev-AD-uh, right?” Kaine joked to a crowd of a couple hundred supporters as he arrived at the Carpenters International Training Center in Las Vegas for a rally tonight.

In the middle of talking about the state’s opioid epidemic at a rally in Reno Wednesday, Trump went on a tangent about the pronunciation of the Silver State’s name.

“In fact, overdoses in Nevada, Ne-VAH-duh,” Trump said, repeating and emphasizing the mispronunciation. “You know what I said? You know what I said? I said when I came out here I said, ‘Nobody says it the other way, it has to be Ne-VAH-duh. But if you don’t say it correctly — it happened to a friend of mine, he was killed.”

Residents of Nevada refer to the state as “Nev-AD-uh,” while those from elsewhere in the country often say “Ne-VAH-duh,” much to the chagrin of Nevadans.

Kaine framed the remark as a typically Trump way of handling the mispronunciation of the state’s name.

"Not knowing how to pronounce the name of a state — now look, everybody can make a mistake,” Kaine said. “But it’s only Donald Trump who tries to tell you, ‘You all should change the way you pronounce it.'"

Kaine also mocked Trump’s response to a local Las Vegas television station reporter’s question Wednesday on whether he supports building a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, a question presidential candidates visiting Nevada are often asked.

"I'm going to take a look at it, because so many people are talking about it. I came into town and everyone's talking about it. So I will take a very strong look at it, and the next time you interview me, we'll talk about it for five minutes,” Trump told KSNV Channel 3.

“You have to worry about safety,” he added. “And it’s a little bit close to a very major population base, so I’m going to take a very strong look at it and I will come very strongly one way or the other. I will have an opinion.”

Kaine mimicked his response — emphasizing the “I will have an opinion” part and saying Trump is good at having opinions — while also noting Yucca’s importance as an issue in Nevada politics.

Kaine also compared Trump not releasing his tax returns to someone applying for a summer job not turning over their references or disclosing their grade point average. "Every major party nominee has done this. It’s part of the job,” Kaine said. "If you think about it, running for president is like a job interview for the most important job on planet Earth."

State Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, speaking before the rally, equated voting for Democrat Hillary Clinton as a vote for the future of the children of America, talking about the first-graders she taught as an elementary school teacher. “That’s who I dedicated my life to,” Woodhouse said. “So I know the stakes could just not be any higher for this election.”

She told the crowd that if any of her first-grade kids had tried to call each other “fat pig” or “slob” they would’ve had “a talking to” from her. “You have to ask yourself, is Donald Trump a role model for our kids?” Woodhouse said.

Kaine highlighted the importance of the campaign in the final month or so before Election Day.

"We’re 33 days out. This is the home stretch,” Kaine said. "This is what we’re doing, gathering and reminding people how important the race is.”

He stressed the importance of Nevada in the election, saying it was one of the first battles in the country with the caucus and will be one of the last in the presidential election. "You guys are always a battleground. That ‘Battle Born' makes you a battleground, I guess,” Kaine said, referring to the state’s motto.

He said that he always wins his races, but that sometimes that means winning them by a hair. "It’s a season of surprises and polls can be wrong,” Kaine said. "Three Democratic terms in a row, that’s not easy either. There’s a lot of challenges here."

Clinton and Trump will return to Las Vegas on Oct. 19 for the final presidential debate at UNLV.