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Kaine Questions ‘God-Given Rights’ Claim, Drawing Conservative Fire

Conservative commentators cast the hearing exchange as a test of founding principles, with implications for State Department human-rights reporting.

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Overview

  • At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Tim Kaine said the view that rights come from the Creator rather than government was "extremely troubling" and likened it to Iran’s theocratic rationale.
  • Nominee Riley Barnes, up for assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labor, had affirmed in his opening statement that rights come from God, not from laws or governments.
  • Sen. Ted Cruz publicly rebuked Kaine during the hearing, reiterating the Declaration of Independence’s language about rights being endowed by a Creator.
  • Opinion pieces in The Hill, Spectator, Washington Examiner and Fox News condemned Kaine’s comments and invoked Jefferson, Lincoln and Kennedy to argue for a natural‑rights foundation.
  • Some commentary links the dispute to reported State Department choices about human-rights reporting priorities, including treatment of abortion and LGBTQ issues, while no policy change or correction from Kaine is reported in these articles.