--- title: Tim Kaine Talks to Stephen Colbert About Being America's Stepdad description: "I’ve been prepared for that for 26 years," Tim Kaine told Stephen Colbert of people saying he acts like a nerdy dad. canonical: https://time.com/4468126/tim-kaine-stephen-colbert-late-show-stepdad/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-26T11:38:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:13:19.473Z article:section: Politics og:title: Tim Kaine Talks to Stephen Colbert About Being America's Stepdad og:description: "I’ve been prepared for that for 26 years," Tim Kaine told Stephen Colbert of people saying he acts like a nerdy dad. og:url: https://time.com/4468126/tim-kaine-stephen-colbert-late-show-stepdad/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tim Kaine Talks to Stephen Colbert About Being America's Stepdad twitter:description: "I’ve been prepared for that for 26 years," Tim Kaine told Stephen Colbert of people saying he acts like a nerdy dad. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Tim Kaine Tells Stephen Colbert He's Totally Fine with Being 'America's Stepdad' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 26, 2016 11:38 AM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 26, 2016 11:38 AM UTC Tim Kaine wants America to know that he’s totally OK with being considered the nation’s nerdy stepdad. On _The Late Show with Stephen Colbert_ Thursday night, the host asked Kaine if he was aware of the dad jokes made after his [Democratic convention appearance](http://time.com/4427804/dnc-tim-kaine-donald-trump-undercut/?iid=sr-link1). “Tim Kaine is making earnest dads everywhere proud,” Colbert read off a tweet. “Tim Kaine will be driving you TO and FROM the prom, mister,” said another. Kaine responded exactly as America’s good-natured stepdad would. “I’ve been prepared for that for 26 years, because I have three children who have been ripping on me and saying those things about me since they were born,” the vice presidential candidate said. (This wasn’t the first time Colbert’s show referenced Kaine’s fatherly qualities: _Last Week Tonight_ host John Oliver appeared with Colbert at the end of July and [said of Kaine](http://time.com/4428443/john-oliver-stephen-colbert-tim-kaine-gilmore-girls/?iid=sr-link1), “The level of dad jokes and impressions that came out of that man’s soft face. He is a tall glass of Lactaid.”) Kaine also told Colbert that he knew [Hillary Clinton had picked him as her running mate](http://time.com/4419165/hillary-clinton-tim-kaine-vice-president-running-mate/?iid=sr-link2) just 12 minutes before the rest of the country found out. “I had to race, called my wife, called our kids, called my parents,” Kaine said of what he did as soon as he found out. **Read Next:** [_Watch Vice Presidential Nominee Tim Kaine Dominate in a Spelling Bee_](http://time.com/4429173/tim-kaine-spelling-bee-press-club/?iid=sr-link3) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4468126/tim-kaine-stephen-colbert-late-show-stepdad/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4468126/tim-kaine-stephen-colbert-late-show-stepdad/"},"headline":"Tim Kaine Tells Stephen Colbert He's Totally Fine with Being 'America's Stepdad'","datePublished":"2016-08-26T11:38:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:13:19.473Z","description":"Hillary Clinton's running mate says he has been \"prepared for that for 26 years\"","url":"https://time.com/4468126/tim-kaine-stephen-colbert-late-show-stepdad/","keywords":["Tim Kaine","Television","stephen colbert"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/tim-kaine/","name":"Tim Kaine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4468126/tim-kaine-stephen-colbert-late-show-stepdad/","name":"Tim Kaine Tells Stephen Colbert He's Totally Fine with Being 'America's Stepdad'"}}]}] ```