Things got bonkers in a Senate hearing attended by failed 2016 Hillary Clinton running mate and current United States Senator from Virginia Tim Kaine (D-VA), who went berserk over the idea that Americans view their rights as coming from God, comparing that belief with the theocratic, Islamist regime in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In his rant, Sen. Kaine effectively rejected the Declaration of Independence.

For reference, the Declaration of Independence contains two references to rights coming from God. The first comes in the opening, providing (emphasis added), “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

Continuing, the Jefferson-written Declaration of Independence goes on to again reference God, this time more directly referring to rights flowing from Him, stating (emphasis added), “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Sen. Kaine appears to reject that framing, viewing the basis of American independence and liberty as both tyrannical and anti-American. In his angry rant on the subject, he said, “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.”

Continuing with the bizarre rant about the idea of rights coming from God, Sen. Kaine insisted that such a view is the same sort of thing that’s believed by the religious minority-oppressing Iranian regime. He said, “It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Sharia law and targets Sunnis, Bahá’ís, Jews, Christians and other religious minorities.”

He then even more directly attacked the Declaration of Independence and its focus on natural rights and God the Creator, saying, “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.”

Attorney and X personality Laura Powell, commenting on the matter, noted just how bizarre and infuriating Sen. Tim Kaine’s attack on the Declaration of Independence was, particularly given his status as a senator from Jefferson’s Old Dominion, writing, “Incredible that the current Senator from Virginia rejects the core principle of the Declaration Of Independence.”

Watch Kaine here:

Agreeing in a quote tweet of her post, Daily Wire personality and major conservative commentator Matt Walsh noted that Sen. Kaine had effectively lied in his oath of office, as he was rejecting a core, foundational principle of America. Walsh began. “This is a remarkable moment from Tim Kaine. He just announced that the core foundational principle of our country, affirmed in the Declaration of Independence, is ‘extremely troubling’ and ‘theocratic.’”

Continuing, Walsh argued that anyone who rejects the core principles of the American nation is not fit to serve as one of its leaders, and thus Kaine must be thrown out of office. He wrote, “He should be immediately removed from office. Anyone who rejects our nation’s foundational principles is obviously not fit to serve.”

Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video