[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] good evening. You are looking at a live picture of Longwood University in the small town of farmville, virginia, where in about 90 minutes, the Vice President ial nominees, mike pence and tim kaine, will meet in their first and only debate of the 2016 campaign. Approximately 500 people are in tonights audience. They are just beginning to take their seats. They will include 100 Longwood University students who won tickets in a lottery. Lets take a look at how tonights stage is set for the debate. There are no podiums. The candidates will sit sidebyside at a desk across from a single moderator for the full 90 minutes. Lots ofbe giving you information about the venue and the candidates themselves to set the stage for tonights debate. We are going to begin with our colleague, steve sully, who is inside the media center on campus. About theare talking inside of willow hall, a basketball arena turned media center. Those doors behind me are where the media aligned up and where most of the press will be watching the debate and then filing their stories, submitting their stories, whether it is a platform of print or broadcast. We are joining the networks with cameras lined up to do interviews and hear from the surrogates. , the surrogates will come out for donald trump and mike pence. Y will give you a suit live on cspan, we will give you a chance to see all of it unfold. There are nine segments as opposed to six. They will be 10 minute segments each, a total of 90 minutes for the debate. The moderator will ask for the opening question, and then eat candidate will have two minutes to respond. It is up to the moderator to followup for a deeper discussion of the issues. Elaine quijano of the new cbs news is the moderator. She worked for cnn. The stage has been close to the press for the last half hour. But we were allowed on the stage to give you a sense of what it is like for the moderator, what the candidates will be looking at, the time cues. This is what we saw earlier today. We are on the debate stage. Janet brown, this is the view the moderator will have for tonights debate. The two candidates are seated. Why . Janet we thought since we first tried this in 2000 in the Vice President ial debate that seating the candidates with the moderator makes for a more comfortable, relaxed conversation. It has proven very successful, and we are happy we can do it again this year. Steve give us a sense of where we are at, and how you were able to transfer this stage from Hofstra University to longwood. Janet it came on truck came on a truck on monday. Will beparticipants participating in the debate. The set looks very much the same. It will be loaded up after tonight and on its way to st. Louis. Steve tell me what happening behind this and who is behind the stage during the debate itself. Jenna the opening is where the cameras are. Behind the cameras is our production table where the executive producer and his , our timer producer and i, are during the debate. Thats where we are during the debate. Until absolutely the end when we go off there. A new look. Is why the change . Janet television and Technology Keeps perfecting and we need to keep using materials and colors that will be as pristine and elegant on air as ever. So we have done new fabrics and colors to try to update it just a little bit, try to give it a fresher look. It is similar to the old one. It is fascinating to work with our set and design guys to see what kind of considerations have to go into the fabrics, the construction of the sets, the lighting. These guys are geniuses. Steve and looking at the table, there is nothing for the candidates. Two blocks for the moderator. Why . Janet we want her to have the means to keep track of wherever she is in the debate. This debate will start with one question that each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The balance of the time, roughly five minutes, will be given to a discussion of that topic. We want the moderator to be able to keep track of where she is in the sequence of things. The candidates come with no notes, no props, nothing. They are able to take notes during the debate, but they dont bring anything with them. Steve what will a Vice President ial nominees see . Janet they will be looking at elayne. They will be looking at their spouses in the front row. They will be looking at cameras letterhead on to them. That our head on to them. They will probably be looking at this table more than any other thing. They will be looking at each other. They are in close proximity, as you can see. They will be looking at each other. The audience is lit. They will not be heard from or seen during the debate. Steve how do you think this will feel for governor pence and him cain janet both have been chief executives of their state kaine . Senator tim janet both have been chief executives of their state. I think this will be an interesting conversation. Bernie shot in 2000 when he started this format led what many thought was one of the best debates we have ever done in this format with that kind of conversation. My bet is that is what we will see tonight. Steve why farmville, virginia . Janet we got 16 formal proposals from universities. These are all submitted colleges that the are interested. We do a lot of digging to see if the institutions can do a debate and mesh it with the start of an Academic Year and all of those considerations. Longwood passed with flying colors. That you can take this you can take this debate to cities that are smaller. Steve there was a Vice President ial debate in kentucky a few years ago. Jenna absolutely. On very shorte order at the university of richmond in this same general zip code in 1992. The provost went on to be the president of center. He has hosted to debates in danville, kentucky. Thatnk in large part experience gave encouragement to longwood. Steve after tonight, two down, two to go. To st. You transfer this louis and then nevada . Janet there is an incredible load out. All of the equipment is loaded onto the trucks and heads to st. Louis. And ia remarkable effort, am so proud of the team that comes together to do this. Everything has to arrive in as pristine condition as it leaves here to be put together in very short order. Sunday is the town meeting. Steve where will you be tonight . I will be at the production table. Steve janet brown, thank you for the tour. Janet thank you, steve. Steve and just because it is mikegovernor tim kaine and pence on the stage tonight, that does not mean that other candidates are not active. Bill weld is live on facebook, joining us via twitter. And we have the Vice President ial nominee for the green party Live Streaming responses to the vp debate beginning at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. You can ask questions on twitter. Tim kaine sent out this message earlier today. Steve and team tromp sent trump sent out this tweet. Here is a little bit of the instagram video. I try to start every day with a little bit of quiet time. I spend time in prayer and devotion. I find that to be enormously important time in my day. Over the course of the day, my a word of often read prayer that we would have the grace to be able to meet this moment. Steve i asked janet brown why longwood. It costs longwood 5. 5 million to host the event. They had to upgrade the internet technology. Wellofficials think it was worth the investment to raise the University Profile and give the student volunteers and impressive line for their resume. Farmville, virginia, where is located is relatively close to uva. It has about 5000 students. In 1830 nine, it was a womens college. Permitted70 were men full. That might explain the student body, 68 female, 32 male. A cost about 11,000 purse a master to go to longwood. Hisrent president father is the president of william and mary college in virginia as well. We talked to him earlier about student involvement. Thing i am most proud of, we have a huge array of courses this fall. They are dedicated specifically to themes of the election, themes of the debate. I think our students at this point understand that this may well be one of the most important president ial debates in our lifetime, given the importance of the issues, the age of the president ial candidates, and the experience of the Vice President ial candidates. Not been more combined congressional and gubernatorial experience on the Vice President ial stage before. You can hear the excitement of students. What do you want students to take away from the debate . I really want them to take away enjoying an hour and a half of what i hope will be real substance, a real measure of civility, a Real Exchange of ideas. Those have been in relatively short supply in 2016. With all of the exotic dimensions of the 2016 race. I hope they relish that as a pattern for the future. You are watching cspans Preview Program of tonights debate from longwood, university, in farmville, virginia. Debate begins shortly after 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Next up, let me introduce you to just and who is joining us from inside the debate hall. He is a political columnist. Our goal is to learn more about the junior senator from virginia. Mensou look at these two bios, there is a lot of similarity. They are very close in age. , both lawyers, both have been married to the same woman for 30 plus years. Both parents of three children, in the marine corps, unusual today. Religiousvery strong beliefs. If those are the similarities, what differentiates the two when they come to the table . That this in mind debate is really about the top of the national ticket, mr. Rump and secretary clinton i think most of us are expecting these Vice President ial candidates to play the very Important Role of sharpening distinctions between the president ial nominees, and perhaps completing some of the Unfinished Business from last weeks president ial debate. Perhaps address some of the issues that have evolved over the past week, including the continuing dispute over Donald Trumps taxes. The style will be very different. There will be a level of civility here that i dont think we had last week. Instead of going for the jugular, they will be doing so in a mannered and polite way. We have a clip we want to the 2012audience from debate for the United States senate seat that senator kaine now holds. It was against former virginia and aor george allen former senator, two very experienced politicians at the table. We thought you at show we would show you what it looks like when tim kaine is in that situation. Seen a kaine we have whole lot of effort to block womens progress, and effort i stand strongly against. George allen and i have strong differences. I proud that when i was governor, we did a lot to bring businesses to virginia and have a profile that made us more appealing than other states. If you rank states top to bottom, we were better off during my administration than the allen administration. I support paycheck equity for women and the Lilly Ledbetter pay act. George allen has refused to support it. I support family medical leave. George allen repeatedly voted against it. I stand against ultrasound legislation, personhood legislation, and efforts to take away womens rights to receive fromaceptive coverage their workplace. You cannot have a Strong Economy for women if you take their choices away. Again, style and substance. What did you hear . Tim kaine has a great gift for being able to absorb vast quantities of complex information, giving it careful consideration, and then sharing it with a comparatively uninformed audience. Its a skill he developed and refined as a litigator in richmond. He is good at tailoring his message to his audience. He knows what words and phrases to use. Listeningeresting to that clip because tim kaine as a catholic opposes abortion but he is very forceful in his support of abortion rights. I think that speaks to the political nature of his personality. He is gentle, educated, and there is a tendency within the society of jesus to publicly wrestle with doubts over issues , and then parsing them a bit. Kane definitely has that tendency. Show tim kaines political biography to show the positions he has held. He is one of only 30 people in u. S. History who have held these successive seats, city council, mayor, lieutenant governor, governor, United States senator. But he got into politics in 1994 family. Of his can you tell us about what drew him into the political world . He is married to the daughter family. Modern republicanthe first governor of virginia, elected in 1969. Governor holton practiced a very different form of republicanism, one that has largely disappeared, a more moderate brand. Included athat particularly sharp commitment to equal rights. Interest ofpecial future governor tim kaines as well. Racial tension is very much a feature of richmond life. He will be promoting racial reconciliation. That she has spent his life promoting racial reconciliation he spent his life promoting racial reconciliation and had a council help him along. In what had been a redrawn , a majority white district, it largely lost the attention of the city. Tim kaine went into africanamerican neighborhoods knocking on doors, talking about how important it was that there in thee addressed africanamerican neighborhood that delivered tim kaines slender majority to allow him to defeat that incumbent. To ask you about his marine corps son and the fact that they are a military family. Has this affected his voting pattern on the use of force in the United States senate . Senatoroints about kaine. He serves on the Armed Services committee. National defense is a Major Economic driver in virginia. Governor spending direct and indirect accounts for 26 of the states economy. His son, matt, his eldest, is a First Lieutenant in the marine corps. One of the points governor kane has made during the campaign is secretaryuld trust clinton as president with his sons life. However, tim kaine came to the concerned about war powers. This put him at odds with barack obama. One thing he has stressed is rewriting the war powers act, making it more difficult to the United States to carry out war, than it has been for a number of years. If i may, this also connects tim kaine to the president of this university. The University President in an earlier incarnation was the studydirector of a through the university of virginia that looked at the issue of war powers, advanced the idea of a rewrite, and then this idea was dusted off by newly elected senator kaine when he went to washington in 2013. Are you privy to the names of people who will be cheering him on in the audience . Are a number of people the senator has invited. I think this will speak to one thehe recurring themes of evening for him, racial reconciliation. Is a civiluests rights lawyer of great prominence in richmond. The citys first africanamerican mayor, later a state senator. Were it not for his support, tim kaine would never have been selected as mayor of richmond relatively early in his tenure as a member of the city government. Finally, we have an informal bet among virginia reporters covering tim kaine how many sentences into his introduction, introductory remarks, he will make reference to the importance of this place, farmville, and , whereedward county defiance over School Desegregation led to the shutdown of Public Schools for over five years in the early 1960s. They were finally reopened under ae supervision of president ial commission, and now bright blue a very dot in the vast sea of red that is the virginia countryside. Perfect because our cameras are now showing governor tim kaine arriving. And we want to thank you for intog us some insight virginias junior senator as he makes the most highprofile appearance of his political career. Joel goldstein literally wrote the book on Vice President ial debates. We are going to talk to him their history and importance. The book is titled the white house vice presidency their hih to significance, mondale to biden. Nol the author of is that book. Thank you for being with us. Is this debate for governor mike pence and senator tim kaine . This debate to a great extent is there and reduction to the American Public. A large portion of the American Public has never seen them before, does not have fixed impressions of them. This will be an opportunity for a lot of people to form their first impressions. Debate, president ial with the exception of the is alwaysn debate, watched by far fewer people than the president ial debate, but on the other hand, it attracts more attention than other events involving Vice President of candidates. As you know, the first Vice President ial debate took place 40 years ago. And it has been part of the landscape since then. They come about . It really began when president ford challenged governor carter to debate and as part of the package, senator dole challenged senator mondale. They accepted on all sides and really began. As you say, it has been a feature of the campaign since then. In some ways, it has meant more for the vice presidency, i think, than the presidency. The president ial candidates get a lot of attention even without the debates, but for the Vice President ial debate, this is really the opportunity where the Campaign Spotlight shines on them, not only for the 90 minutes of the debate, but for the time before and after. What is fee challenge what is the challenge for governor pen