Donald Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence, attacked Russian president Vladimir Putin as a “small and bullying leader” during Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate – a sharp break from Trump’s own attitude toward Putin, which has been warm and conciliatory.

“The small and bullying leader of Russia is not dictating terms to the United States,” Pence said. “We have got to be able to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered American leadership.”

Pence went on to call for U.S. military strikes against a key Russian military ally, the regime of Syrian leader Bashar Assad, if Assad’s regime threatened to move against a besieged rebel enclave around Aleppo, Syria.

“The provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength,” Pence said. “The United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime.”

Sen. Tim Kaine, the running mate of Democrat Hillary Clinton, raised the issue of Trump’s praise for Putin.

“If you don’t know the difference between dictatorship and leadership, then you’ve got to go back to a 5th-grade civics class,” Kaine said.

After its first hour, the debate between Kaine and Pence was defined by frequent interruptions by Kaine, and – from Pence – a calm, confident disdain, and a constant struggle to reconcile his positions with those of Trump himself. Earlier in the evening, Pence seemed to back away from a key piece of Trump’s policy agenda during the Republican primaries, a plan to deport undocumented immigrants en masse.

“In all six cases, he’s refused to defend his running mate. . .and yet, he’s asking everybody to vote for somebody that he cannot defend,” Kaine said at one point.

On immigration, Pence, instead, said that Trump would focus first on ending illegal immigration and deporting “criminal aliens.”

“Once we have accomplished all of that. . .Then we’ll deal with those that remain,” Pence said, while giving no more details. Trump said repeatedly during the GOP primary that he wanted to immediately deport 11 million immigrants already in the United States.

Kaine tried to tie Pence to Trump’s past statements, saying that “Donald Trump believes in deportation nation. You’ve got to pick your choice.”

In the only vice-presidential debate of the season, moderator Elaine Quijano pressed Pence to say if he would follow through on Trump’s previous mass-deportation plan. Pence did not answer directly. Instead, he said he would seek to work with Democrats to work on an undisclosed answer: “Senator, I’ll work with you when you go back to the Senate,” he said to Kaine.

While Pence seemed to pivot on Trump’s immigration priorities, he stuck with Trump’s stance on taxes. Pence did not challenge the notion that his running mate had not paid federal income taxes – saying that Trump had used the tax code “brilliantly.”

Pence was asked about a New York Times report, which relied on leaked pages from Trump’s 1995 tax returns, which showed that Trump had claimed a $916 million loss – and might have been able to avoid federal income taxes for up to 18 years. Pence did not make any claim that Trump had paid federal income taxes.

“His tax returns showed he went through a very difficult time, but he used the tax code the way it was meant to be used, and he used it brilliantly,” Pence said. “Donald Trump has created tens of thousands of jobs, and he’s paid payroll taxes, property taxes. . ..”

Kaine of Virginia challenged Pence to say why Trump had not released his tax returns, as other nominees have for 40 years. Pence repeated what Trump has said – that he would release the tax returns, but only when an IRS audit is over. The IRS has said that there is no legal prohibition on releasing taxes while they are under audit.

The two candidates spent the debate’s first half-hour using sharply different strategies: Kaine was aggressive, interrupting and hurling pre-rehearsed insults at Pence. Pence was calmer, counter-punching with an edge of disdain for Kaine’s tactics.

“People at home cannot understand either one of you when you speak over each other,” moderator Quijano said at one point, frustrated that the two men would not let one another talk.

Earlier, Kaine opened the debate by saying he was “scared” of the prospect that the GOP nominee would become president, while his son is serving in the Marine Corps.

“We trust Hillary Clinton as president and commander-in-chief,” Kaine said, speaking of himself and his wife. “The thought of Donald Trump as commander-in-chief scares us to death.”

Kaine began the debate, held in Farmville, Virginia, on the attack. He turned two of the first answers from questions about himself or Clinton into attacks on Trump.

“I can’t imagine how Gov. Pence can defend the insult-driven, selfish, me-first style of Donald Trump,” Kaine said.

The debate, which pitted two nominees with vanilla reputations, turned quickly bitter, with both Kaine and Pence interrupting each other.

“Senator, you and Hillary Clinton would know a lot about an insult-driven campaign. It really is remarkable,” Pence said.

After being interrupted by Kaine again, Pence responded in a flat tone that belied the bitter tone of the debate. “I musta hit a nerve here,”he said.

“You are Donald Trump’s apprentice,” Kaine said at one point, implying that the famously genial Pence had taken on Trump’s aggressive persona.

It seemed clear that Kaine had come armed with pre-planned zingers that mocked Trump, with varying degrees of zing.

“Do you want a ‘You’re hired’ president under Hillary Clinton, or do you want a ‘You’re fired’ president, under Donald Trump,” Kaine said.

Pence mocked that: “You used that a lot, and I think your running mate used a lot of pre-planned lines.”

The debate began a few minutes after 9 p.m. at Longwood University. It is the only vice-presidential debate of the 2016 election, and it comes at a moment when the Democratic ticket, led by Clinton, seems to be pulling away.

For the two men, this is the biggest night of their political lives. But, if they do their jobs right, they will shift the focus elsewhere, onto the two candidates at the top of their respective tickets.

Pence and Kaine are dueling over the temperament, qualifications, honesty and records of Trump and Clinton, as the two affable and smooth-talking men explain and proselytize for their historically unpopular running mates.

The Clinton campaign hinted at Kaine’s strategy in a tweet Tuesday morning that read: “Imagine Donald Trump’s most hateful rhetoric signed into law. Mike Pence’s record shows that it could happen.”

The campaign posted examples on its website of ideas that Trump has floated – such as ending birthright citizenship, restricting access to abortion, lessening gun restrictions and making it more difficult to vote – along with similar legislative action that Pence has taken or supported. The campaign also released a video titled “The Same” that compared comments from Trump and Pence on gay rights, global warming, the minimum wage and other topics.

Kaine himself tweeted a “message to Donald Trump and Mike Pence” on Tuesday morning: “We’re going forward, not backward,” written in both Spanish and English.</s>The vice presidential candidates from the two major parties in the US presidential election will face each other later in a debate for the first time.

Hillary Clinton's Democratic Party running-mate Tim Kaine will go head-to-head against Republican candidate Mike Pence at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

Although both men are experienced politicians, neither has a significant national profile.

Tonight's debate will be a chance for them to appeal to independent and undecided voters.

Mr Pence is currently Governor of Indiana and was previously a congressman, while Mr Kaine is a Senator from Virginia, and was previously governor of that state.



Both men are descendants of Irish immigrants and have spoken frequently of their Irish heritage and have visited Ireland recently.

Mr Pence's family hailed from Co Clare and Co Sligo. Mr Kaine has traced his roots to Co Longford.

Immigration reform is likely to be one focus of the debate, which on the whole is expected to feature more policy details than the Clinton-Trump debate last week.

The debate begins at 2am Irish time.

Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump will face each other again in St Louis, Missouri on Sunday.

Mr Trump is under fire after saying he "brilliantly used" US tax rules to his advantage in trying to limit the amount he paid in taxes.</s>FARMVILLE, Va. (AP) — Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine have arrived at the site of the first and only vice presidential debate.

The candidates will face off just past 9 p.m. at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

Advisers for the candidates suggest there could be fireworks during the 90-minute affair, although vice presidential debates rarely change the direction of a presidential race.

Elaine Quijano of CBS News serves as the moderator.

Neither candidate is as well-known as his running mate. Pence is a first-term governor and previously served as a congressman. Kaine is former Virginia governor and now serves the state in the Senate.

Donald Trump is campaigning in Colorado, but he said he’d be “live tweeting” the debate. Hillary Clinton is at home in New York.</s>Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence quarreled Tuesday night over foreign policy, the economy and a number of other issues during the vice presidential debate.

The two clashed over immigration, terrorism, policing, Russia, Donald Trump’s taxes, Hillary Clinton’s record as secretary of state, abortion rights and more in the first and only vice presidential debate of the year.

Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, and Pence, the Republican vice presidential nominee, squared off at Longwood University in Farmville, Va., for 90 minutes. It came eight days after the first presidential debate between Trump and Clinton. The next presidential debate will be held Sunday night at Washington University in St. Louis.

Often during the debate, the vice presidential nominees attempted to tie each other to their respective running mates.

Throughout the night, Kaine attacked Trump on several issues, including his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his comments calling women slobs and Mexicans rapists. He also criticized Trump for potentially having avoided paying taxes over an 18-year period, as reported earlier this week in The New York Times.

Kaine accused Pence several times of being unable to defend Trump.

“I’m happy to defend him,” Pence quipped back. “Most of what you said is completely false.”

On the other side, Pence criticized Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state under President Barack Obama. He called her the architect of Obama’s foreign policy decisions and blamed her for creating the vacuum that allowed the Islamic State to grow, calling the U.S. “less safe” because of her.

Kaine, though, praised Clinton’s time as Secretary of State, pointing out that she helped devise the plan to kill former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The two also debated at length about immigration and refugees. Kaine said he and Clinton would vet refugees on “whether they’re dangerous” and criticized Trump and Pence for wanting to keep Muslims and others from Middle Eastern countries out of the U.S.

But Pence said the U.S. should “err on the side of safety and security of the American people” when it comes to deciding whether to allow refugees in the country.

“We can’t know for certain who these people are,” he said.

On the subject of immigration, Pence said a Trump administration would “reform the system we have” after securing the border and getting rid of illegal immigrants “who have overstayed their welcome.”

Kaine criticized Trump for proposing mass deportations and said a Clinton administration would pass bipartisan reform to provide immigrants with a path to citizenship.

In one of the night’s only shifts to a social issue, the Virginia senator and Indiana governor also sparred over abortion rights.

Pence blasted Clinton’s pro-choice stance, saying he “can’t conscience” supporting partial-birth abortion and advocated for pro-life legislation.

Kaine, though, said abortion should be a woman’s decision. He condemned Trump’s previous position, which the Republican nominee has since walked back, that women who have abortions should be punished.

Pence said he and Trump “would never” punish women for having abortions, prompting Kaine to ask why Trump previously said he would.

“He’s not a polished politician like you and Hillary Clinton,” Pence said.</s>Mike Pence and Tim Kaine? Not so much.

Tuesday night's vice presidential debate pits a former radio host who's described himself as "Rush Limbaugh on decaf" (Pence) against a harmonica-playing former missionary whose aw-shucks style has spawned a thousand dad jokes (Kaine).

Barring the unexpected, their 90-minute faceoff is unlikely to alter the trajectory of the presidential race.

But don't hit the snooze button just yet. Debate history suggests there's still the potential for some memorable moments.

Some things to watch for in Tuesday's debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

Pence and Kaine have campaigned full tilt for more than two months now, but plenty of people still don't have a feel for them. In a recent Associated Press-GfK poll, more than half of registered voters said they didn't know enough about Kaine to venture an opinion about him, and about 44 percent said the same for Pence. This is their big moment to show they're qualified to be next in line to the president.

Trump may disdain traditional debate prep, but Kaine and Pence both have embraced the Scout motto: Be prepared. Each must be ready to defend his own record, skewer his opponent and do the same for the top of the ticket.

Pence and Kaine have to decide whether to focus more on one another or on Trump and Clinton. Watch how they toggle between the two tasks. Look for Pence, who calls Clinton "the most dishonest person ever to seek the presidency," to zero in on lines of attack that Trump hardly touched in the first debate, such as questions about whether Clinton played favorites as secretary of state with donors to the Clinton Foundation. Kaine will try to act as a character witness for Clinton and go after Trump, of whom the senator says his "only recognized passion in his life has been for himself."

Pence will have the added herculean task of explaining away the steady stream of insults, barbs and inflammatory comments delivered by his running mate, including the latest contretemps over a beauty queen whom Trump has shamed for gaining weight. Pence has had plenty of practice in recent weeks. Expect him to employ a strategy of praising Trump for his unscripted style as a "bold truth teller" without arguing the merits of the GOP nominee's specific comments.

Pence could well be asked about Trump's tax strategy after The New York Times reported over the weekend that the billionaire businessman lost so much money in a single year that he could have avoided any federal income tax liability for 18 years. With an audience of millions, will Pence echo Trump's claims that he used the tax laws "brilliantly?" or try some other tack?

Both candidates may need to navigate areas where they have policy differences with their running mates; Pence more so than Kaine. Pence, for example, says it's clear that human activity is affecting the climate while Trump has called global warming a hoax. Kaine holds that U.S. military operations against the Islamic State group have not been properly approved by Congress, a point of disagreement with Clinton.

Expect both Pence, an evangelical, and Kaine, a former Catholic missionary, to showcase their religious backgrounds in an effort to appeal to different constituencies. Pence likes to say of himself: "I'm a Christian, a conservative and a Republican — in that order." Kaine often brings up his time as a missionary in Honduras, working in a few lines of Spanish along the way to reach out to Hispanics.

Past vice presidential debates have provided some memorable lines. Republican Bob Dole's cutting quip in 1976 about all the Americans killed in "Democrat wars" did him no good. Democrat Lloyd Bentsen's 1988 putdown of Republican Dan Quayle with his "You're no Jack Kennedy" line still singes. Third-party candidate James Stockdale's rambling 1992 opening questions of "Who am I? Why am I here?" captured a candidate who was clearly out of his element. Four years ago, Vice President Joe Biden's denunciations of Republican Paul Ryan's budget math as "a bunch of malarkey" showed considerably more spark than did President Barack Obama's leaden performance against rival Mitt Romney in the leadoff presidential debate.

CBS News' Elaine Quijano will be under the microscope as moderator, especially since Trump has complained that NBC's Lester Holt, the moderator of last week's debate, was too tough on him.

What political news is the world searching for on Google and talking about on Twitter? Find out via AP's Election Buzz interactive. http://elections.ap.org/buzz</s>FARMVILLE, Va.: Indiana Gov. Mike Pence tried during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate to stanch the damage from disclosures that Donald Trump may not have paid federal income taxes for two decades, insisting his running mate showed business acumen when he declared a nearly $1 billion loss.

“He went through a very difficult time, but he used the tax code just as it’s supposed to be used and he used it brilliantly,” Pence said. “Donald Trump has created tens of thousands of jobs.”

The statement came during the beginning of a surprisingly fiery debate between Pence and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democrat on Hillary Clinton’s ticket. The pair, debating at Longwood University, frequently interrupted each other and accused their opponents of dishonesty as they argued over a range of topics, including foreign policy, the economy, taxes, the federal budget, criminal justice and immigration.

Pence at one point accused Kaine and Clinton of lodging “an avalanche of insults,” while Kaine accused Pence and Trump of running an “insult-driven campaign.” Moderator Elaine Quijano looked like a traffic cop for much of the evening, trying to keep the candidates from talking over each other and her.

Kaine prodded Pence repeatedly over Trump’s failure to release his full tax returns and mocked Trump for bragging during last week’s debate that not paying taxes would show that he is smart.

“So it’s smart not to pay for our military? It’s smart not to pay for our veterans?” Kaine said. “It’s smart not to pay our teachers? So I guess the rest of us who do pay for those things are stupid.”

“I can’t imagine how Gov. Pence can defend the impulse-driven, selfish me-first style of Donald Trump,” he added.

Kaine called out Trump for demeaning Mexicans who cross the border illegally, questioning President Barack Obama’s birthplace and lodging a host of other insults. But he also had to answer for Clinton, who has been dogged by questions over fundraising, paid speeches, and the private email server she used as secretary of State.

“There’s a reason why people question the trustworthiness of Hillary Clinton,” Pence said. “And that’s because they’re paying attention.”

Kaine said Clinton proved her trustworthiness by committing to helping others before she entered politics. And he raised his son’s military service to declare her fitness to lead the nation’s armed forces.

“We trust her with the most important thing in our life,” Kaine said. “The thought of Donald Trump as commander in chief scares us to death.”

But Pence was just as aggressive in attacking Clinton for failures in the economy and national security during President Obama’s tenure. He accused Clinton of planning to stifle the economy with high taxes and regulations.

“The American people know that we need to make a change,” Pence said. “We see remarkable portions of the world ... literally spinning out of control.”

Kaine countered that Clinton helped start the process to cut a deal to halt Iran’s nuclear program and worked in the Obama administration when Osama Bin Laden was killed.

The two clashed again when the discussion turned to law enforcement.

Pence took aim at Clinton’s and Kaine’s assessment that the criminal justice system is beset with institutional racism. “Senator, please, enough of this seizing every opportunity to demean law enforcement broadly” by charging “implicit bias.”

Kaine expressed incredulity at Pence’s comment. “Those who say we should not be able to bring up or talk about bias in the system will never be able to solve the problem,” he said. “I can’t believe you are defending the position there is no bias.”

Kaine then pivoted into an attack on Trump, reciting the GOP nominee’s demeaning comments about Mexican immigrants, women and war hero John McCain, the Arizona senator. “If you want to have a society where people are respected and respect laws, you can’t have somebody at the top who demeans everybody,” he said.

When the debate turned to immigration, Kaine accused Pence and Trump of planning for a “deportation force” that will remove 16 million people from the country.

“They want to go house to house, school to school, business to business and kick out 16 million people,” Kaine said.

Pence called the description “nonsense.” He said his and Trump’s plan to strengthen the borders and aggressively enforce existing laws contrasts with the Democratic plan, which he labeled amnesty.

“They have a plan for open borders,” Pence said. “They call it comprehensive immigration reform on Capitol Hill. We all know the routine. It’s amnesty. “

Trump’s missteps on the debate stage proved costly to his campaign at a time he had come close to catching Clinton in the polls. She now leads by an average of nearly four percentage points nationally, according to Real Clear Politics. Clinton’s position in battleground states also has improved, with a 6 percentage-point lead in New Hampshire and a cushion of four percentage points in Pennsylvania.

Trump, however, is far from knocked out. He leads in Ohio by nearly four and is within striking distance in Florida, both states he almost certainly must win to take the White House.

Four years ago, Vice President Joe Biden faced the same pressure Pence was to be under Tuesday night. Biden was tasked with reclaiming campaign momentum in his 2012 debate, after Obama turned in a poor performance that year in his first faceoff with Mitt Romney.

“While it can’t be a reset, it can certainly be a moment of rehabilitation and putting things back on track,” said Scott Mulhauser, Biden’s deputy chief of staff in the 2012 campaign.</s>FARMVILLE, Va. -- Indiana Gov. Mike Pence tried during Tuesday's vice presidential debate to stanch the damage from disclosures that Donald Trump may not have paid federal income taxes for two decades, insisting his running mate showed business acumen when he declared a nearly $1 billion loss.

"He went through a very difficult time, but he used the tax code just as it's supposed to be used and he used it brilliantly," Pence said. "Donald Trump has created tens of thousands of jobs."

The statement came during the beginning of a surprisingly fiery debate between Pence and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democrat on Hillary Clinton's ticket. The pair, debating at Longwood University, frequently interrupted each other and accused their opponents of dishonesty as they argued over a range of topics, including foreign policy, the economy, taxes, the federal budget, criminal justice and immigration.

Pence at one point accused Kaine and Clinton of lodging "an avalanche of insults," while Kaine accused Pence and Trump of running an "insult-driven campaign." Moderator Elaine Quijano looked like a traffic cop for much of the evening, trying to keep the candidates from talking over each other and her.

Kaine prodded Pence repeatedly over Trump's failure to release his full tax returns and mocked Trump for bragging during last week's debate that not paying taxes would show that he is smart.

"So it's smart not to pay for our military? It's smart not to pay for our veterans?" Kaine said. "It's smart not to pay our teachers? So I guess the rest of us who do pay for those things are stupid."

"I can't imagine how Gov. Pence can defend the impulse-driven, selfish me-first style of Donald Trump," he added.

Kaine called out Trump for demeaning Mexicans who cross the border illegally, questioning President Barack Obama's birthplace and lodging a host of other insults. But he also had to answer for Clinton, who has been dogged by questions over fundraising, paid speeches, and the private email server she used as secretary of State.

"There's a reason why people question the trustworthiness of Hillary Clinton," Pence said. "And that's because they're paying attention."

Kaine said Clinton proved her trustworthiness by committing to helping others before she entered politics. And he raised his son's military service to declare her fitness to lead the nation's armed forces.

"We trust her with the most important thing in our life," Kaine said. "The thought of Donald Trump as commander in chief scares us to death."

But Pence was just as aggressive in attacking Clinton for failures in the economy and national security during President Obama's tenure. He accused Clinton of planning to stifle the economy with high taxes and regulations.

"The American people know that we need to make a change," Pence said. "We see remarkable portions of the world ... literally spinning out of control."

Pence countered that Clinton helped start the process to cut a deal to halt Iran's nuclear program and worked in the Obama administration when Osama Bin Laden was killed.

The two clashed again when the discussion turned to law enforcement.

Pence took aim at Clinton's and Kaine's assessment that the criminal justice system is beset with institutional racism. "Senator, please, enough of this seizing every opportunity to demean law enforcement broadly" by charging "implicit bias."

Kaine expressed incredulity at Pence's comment. "Those who say we should not be able to bring up or talk about bias in the system will never be able to solve the problem," he said. "I can't believe you are defending the position there is no bias."

Kaine then pivoted into an attack on Trump, reciting the GOP nominee's demeaning comments about Mexican immigrants, women and war hero John McCain, the Arizona senator. "If you want to have a society where people are respected and respect laws, you can't have somebody at the top who demeans everybody," he said.

When the debate turned to immigration, Kaine accused Pence and Trump of planning for a "deportation force" that remove 16 million people from the country.

"They want to go house to house, school to school, business to business and kick out 16 million people," Kaine said.

Pence called the description "nonsense." He said his and Trump's plan to strengthen the borders and aggressively enforce existing laws contrasts with the Democratic plan, which he labeled amnesty.

"They have a plan for open borders," Pence said. "They call it comprehensive immigration reform on Capitol Hill. We all know the routine. It's amnesty. "

A strong performance by Pence was considered crucial for Trump because of his poor showing last week and a series of controversies that followed, including his insults of a Venezuelan American beauty queen, the disclosure of a tax filing that showed Trump may not have paid federal income taxes for two decades and the suspension of his charity foundation this week by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Republicans were looking to the more disciplined and politically experienced Pence to shift the conversation to Trump's core message that the middle class and working poor have been left behind by changes in the economy. Trump had some early success in his matchup with Clinton last week when he hammered her for some of the economic policies implemented by Democrats that he argued caused massive job losses. But he quickly lost any advantage he had gained as he strayed off message and into boastful tangents, personal insults and interruptions.

Trump's missteps on the debate stage proved costly to his campaign at a time he had come close to catching Clinton in the polls. She now leads by an average of nearly four percentage points nationally, according to Real Clear Politics. Clinton's position in battleground states also has improved, with a six-percentage-point lead in New Hampshire and a cushion of four percentage points in Pennsylvania.

Trump, however, is far from knocked out. He leads in Ohio by nearly four and is within striking distance in Florida, both states he almost certainly must win to take the White House.

Four years ago, Vice President Joe Biden faced the same pressure Pence was to be under Tuesday night. Biden was tasked with reclaiming campaign momentum in his 2012 debate, after Obama turned in a poor performance that year in his first faceoff with Mitt Romney.

"While it can't be a reset, it can certainly be a moment of rehabilitation and putting things back on track," said Scott Mulhauser, Biden's deputy chief of staff in the 2012 campaign.

Pence and Kaine are more traditional representatives of their parties than Trump and Clinton. They are far less well-known than the presidential nominees and less divisive.

Many conservatives turned off by Trump's unorthodox brand of Republicanism have put their faith in Pence, a longtime social and fiscal hardliner, in hopes that he can smooth some of Trump's edges. But his task is a hard one, given Trump's dominance on the ticket.

"It'll be very difficult," said Michael Steel, a political consultant who helped prepare House Speaker Paul Ryan for his 2012 vice presidential debate against Biden. "I don't think anyone has any doubt that Mike Pence is a consistent and committed conservative, and there's not really much that Pence can say to convince (voters) that Donald Trump is as well."

Biden suggested Tuesday that, in his case, it helped that he was in lockstep with his running mate. Asked whether he had any advice for the debaters, Biden said at an event in Washington, "Think about whether you made the right decision."

Biden then pointed toward the White House. "It could be a long day in that office over there if you don't agree with the president," he said. The remark was aimed at the substantial share of the Trump agenda that Pence has signed onto only recently, as well as the vastly different leadership styles of Trump and Pence.

Kaine has his own challenges, given the distrust many voters have in Clinton. Democrats have tried to highlight his personal story, including his missionary work in Honduras. Kaine, a former mayor of the state capital of Richmond and governor of Virginia, has been viewed in the Senate as a consensus-builder with a keen interest in the intricacies of policy.

That puts him in league with Pence, who served in the House, where he championed small government and held a strong opposition to abortion.</s>Mike Pence hopes to steady Trump campaign in VP debate against Tim Kaine

WASHINGTON: Hoping to steady Donald Trump’s rocky presidential campaign, running mate Mike Pence will take on Democratic counterpart Tim Kaine Tuesday night in this year’s only vice presidential debate. The Republican campaign manager predicts voters watching on TV will see Pence deliver a “fiery performance.”

Virginia Sen. Kaine has a clear assignment, too: Build on Hillary Clinton’s recent burst of momentum at Trump’s expense.

Clean-up duty is hardly a new assignment for Pence, the former Indiana governor. A mild-mannered Midwesterner with strong conservative credentials, he who previously has tried to soften Trump’s criticism of a military family and toughen the businessman’s stance on Russia. When Trump waffled over endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan in his August primary, Pence weighed in with a solid vote of confidence in his former congressional colleague.

Republican campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Tuesday on CBS “This Morning” that Pence was ready to go after Clinton on the debate stage at Virginia’s Longwood University.

The vice presidential contest comes as Trump tries to recover from one of the worst weeks of his turbulent presidential campaign. He delivered an uneven — and at times undisciplined — performance in the first presidential debate, then became absorbed in a controversy over comments he made two decades ago about a beauty queen’s weight.

That firestorm was quieted only by revelations that Trump suffered more than $900 million in losses in 1995 that could have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for as many as 18 years, according to records obtained by The New York Times.

With time running out to sway undecided voters ahead of the Nov. 8 election, Republicans say Pence needs to use his moment in the political spotlight to shift the campaign conversation away from Trump’s self-inflicted wounds.

“His goal in this vice presidential debate is to continue to take the high road, but also take every opportunity he can to not get sidetracked on issues that aren’t important,” said Alice Stewart, who advised Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign.

The single debate for the running mates is always a more low-key affair than the trio of presidential showdowns. That’s particularly true in an election where the candidates at the top of the ticket are such outsized figures who have been in the public eye for decades.

While last week’s first debate between Trump and Clinton drew a record-setting television audience of about 84 million people, the Pence-Kaine contest is expected to be watched by far fewer viewers.

For many of those who do tune in, the debate is likely to be one of their first opportunities to thoroughly assess the men who could be next in line for the presidency. In a recent Associated Press-GfK poll, more than half of registered voters said they didn’t know enough about Kaine to venture an opinion about him and about 44 percent said the same for Pence.

Kaine is a friendly and earnest political veteran whose easygoing demeanor is similar to Pence. He’s tried to serve as a validator of Clinton’s character, eager to offset the questions many Americans have about her honesty and trustworthiness.

Part of his mission Tuesday night will be trying to make Pence own Trump’s divisive statements and policy proposals.

“When it comes to the issues, it’s hard to tell them apart,” Clinton’s campaign said of Pence and Trump in a video released ahead of the debate. “From the alt-right racists supporting their ticket to women’s health to immigration to LGBT equality to global warming to the minimum wage, it’s no wonder that Donald Trump picked Mike Pence.”

Kaine spent several days preparing for the debate in Raleigh, North Carolina, and in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, which is about an hour west of the debate site. Washington lawyer Robert Barnett has been playing the role of Pence in Kaine’s debate preparations.

Pence, too, has been meticulously preparing for the showdown, a contrast with Trump, who eschewed traditional study sessions and practice debates. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has stood in as Kaine in the prep sessions.

Since joining Trump’s ticket in July, Pence has often been tasked with easing the anxieties of conservatives who worry about the Republican nominee’s sometimes-fluctuating political ideology.

“There’s Pence speak and there’s Trump speak — Mike Pence using the language of conservative orthodoxy and Donald Trump using the language of a brash businessman,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union.

When Trump clashed with American Muslim parents whose son was killed serving the military in Iraq, it was Pence who issued a statement saying the family should be “cherished by every American.”

And when Trump seemed to encourage Russia to find missing Clinton emails, Pence quickly warned Russia that there would “serious consequences” for interfering in the U.S. election.

In both cases, Pence tried to turn the matters around on Clinton by raising points about her handling of related issues, a strategy he’s sure to rely on during Tuesday’s debate.

Chart the path Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton must take on the Road to 270 to reach the White House with AP’s Electoral College interactive map: http://elections.ap.org/content/road-270-0</s>Donald Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, may have come out ahead in Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate, but the victory may have been a personal win for him rather than for the Republican presidential nominee.

The Indiana governor undoubtedly won on style over senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, in their only televised head-to-head. But the Democratic camp capitalised anyway, using Pence’s statements denying or deflecting Trump’s most inflammatory remarks against the billionaire.

The normally affable Kaine took one for Team Clinton by serving as her attack dog. He was condescending and hectoring at times, interrupting his rival some 70 times during the 90-minute debate.

Trump’s supporter hit back at the Clinton camp over his performance. New York Republican congressman Chris Collins, called Kaine “unhinged”, “rude” and “insulting”.

“I thought Hillary was the most unlikable politician until I saw Tim Kaine last night,” Collins said.

However, Kaine did enough to expose Pence on Trump’s lies and rhetoric. He drew out enough contradictory and off-message remarks from the polished Pence, a former conservative talk radio host, that will allow Clinton to continue prosecuting the case that Trump is unfit to be president.

The Democrats’ campaign produced a morning-after attack ad contrasting Pence’s denials that Trump had promised to deport all illegal immigrants, punish women who had abortions and work with Russian leader Vladimir Putin with past videos showing that the nominee had in fact said each of those things.

“From where I sat, Donald Trump won the debate,” Pence told supporters yesterday at a rally in Harrisonburg, Virginia in his first public campaign event after the debate.

The Republican pointedly focused his postmortem on the candidate at the top of the presidential ticket a day after commentators suggested, citing Trump aides, that the billionaire may not be happy that his running mate performed far better in his debate than Trump did in his encounter with Clinton.

The Republican vice-presidential nominee, for the most part, side-stepped Kaine’s attacks on his running mate. Still, the lasting impression will be that Pence could not only not defend Trump, but even strayed from his positions on immigration, the conflict in Syria and attitude towards Russia.

Kaine’s best line against Pence – “he is asking everyone to vote for someone he will not defend” – was left largely unanswered. This provides Clinton with ammo for her second debate with Trump on Sunday.

She took the day off the campaign trail yesterday to prepare for that event.

Pence’s defence of the Republican principles of low taxes, less regulation, small government and conservative social values will excite part of the party’s core, but this was more Pence than Trump.

The debate is unlikely to push significant numbers of on-the-fence voters towards one nominee or the other. A snap CNN/ORC poll of debate watchers declared Pence the winner by a margin of six points but found that most (53 per cent) were not swayed by the testy exchange.

To that extent, this was a typical vice-presidential debate: largely inconsequential in itself, but it may help Clinton continue to make this election a referendum on Donald Trump.</s>Mr. Kaine, 58 and Mr. Pence, 57, are about 10 years younger than the presidential nominees.

Vice presidential hopefuls Tim Kaine and Mike Pence launched into their only debate of the campaign on Tuesday, immediately clashing on the reputations and experiences of their bosses chasing the White House.

Democrat Kaine and Republican Pence squared off to highlight their capabilities as the men who could be a heartbeat away from the presidency, but essentially they were on stage fighting a proxy war for their running mates five weeks before Election Day on November 8.

Mr. Kaine, a US senator from Virginia, promoted himself as a deeply experienced local, state and national politician who would be the “right hand person” for Ms. Clinton, describing her as trustworthy and more than capable in the role of commander in chief.

“The thought of Donald Trump as commander in chief scares us to death,” Mr. Kaine said.

“I can't imagine how Governor Pence can defend the insult-driven, selfish, me-first style of Donald Trump.”

Mr. Pence, the governor of Indiana, calmly shot back: “You would know a lot about an insult-driven campaign,” highlighting Ms. Clinton's relentless criticism of Mr. Trump in recent months.

“We see entire portions of the world, particularly the wider Middle East, spinning out of control. The situation we're watching hour by hour in Syria today is the result of the weak foreign policy that Hillary Clinton helped lead in this administration and create.”

The two men repeatedly talked over each over as they clashed over Mr. Trump's failure to release his tax records, social security and the prospect of mounting debt, forcing moderator Elaine Quijano to intervene and insist they cut it out.

Mr. Kaine, 58 and Mr. Pence, 57, are about 10 years younger than the presidential nominees. They each are fathers of a son serving in the US military, and they are seen as more engaged with their faith than Ms. Clinton and Mr. Trump.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, and the Governor of Indiana Mike Pence hold the first and only vice-presidential debate of the 2016 presidential election at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.