Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is a graduate of Harvard Law School and came close to being elected Vice President on Hillary Clinton’s ticket in 2016. But his outburst at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing this week on where our “inalienable rights” come from suggests he doesn’t understand the core of America’s founding as the land of the free.

“The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator — that’s what the Iranian government believes,” Kaine said. “It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Sharia law and targets Sunnis, Bahá’ís, Jews, Christians and other religious minorities.”

“And they do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator. So the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”

Thanks to Ted Cruz for straightening Kaine out:

The American people are clearly on Cruz’s side in this debate. Last year, the pollster Scott Rasmussen found that 78% of voters thought people have “natural rights” that cannot legitimately be taken away by any government. Only 15% disagreed and said individual rights and freedoms come from the government.