Fact Check

Tim Kaine Yells at His Daughter

An audio recording purportedly capturing Democratic VP candidate Tim Kaine yelling at his daughter actually features the voice of actor Alec Baldwin.

Published Oct. 13, 2016

 (Flickr)
Image Via Flickr
Claim:
An audio recording captures Democratic VP candidate Tim Kaine yelling at his young daughter.

On 12 October 2016, a YouTube clip purportedly capturing the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, screaming at his young daughter was circulated via social media in October 2016:

Breaking: Tim Kaine Yells At 11 Year Old Daughter In Leaked Voicemail! Kaine Explodes On 11 Yr Old! Leaked Voicemail Proves He is Unfit To Lead! Another Leaked Footage Proves A dark side of Tim Kaine! We must alert the public! The media is trying to hide this!

While the audio portion of this clip is real, it has nothing to do with Senator Tim Kaine. It's actually a voicemail that actor Alec Baldwin left for his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, in April 2007; and the publicizing of that recording was a major media story back then:

The actor has been banned by a court from seeing his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, after unleashing a string of insults at her on the telephone.

Baldwin was furious when Ireland — who lives with her mother Kim Basinger in Los Angeles — did not answer the phone when she knew he was due to call from New York.

During the call, recorded on the girl's answering machine, Baldwin, 49, ranted: "You are a rude, thoughtless little pig. You don't have the brains or the decency as a human being.

"I don't give a damn that you're 12 years old, or 11 years old, or that you're a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn't care about what you do as far as I'm concerned.

"Once again I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone. You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone."

He then threatened to fly to LA "for the day, just to straighten you out on this issue".


The actor publicly apologized for the incident shortly after the recording was released:

Speaking to Barbara Walters and Rosie O'Donnell, the show's co-hosts, Baldwin says that up until this incident, his relationship with his child has been a good one.

"Obviously, calling your child a pig or anything else is improper and inappropriate, and I apologize to my daughter for that," he says. "Everyone in my life who knows me, knows that I have a great relationship with my daughter."

Baldwin and his daughter also mocked the voicemail incident in a 2015 Instagram post:

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.