A heartbeat away from the presidency, the other will be the answer to a trivia question. Tonight, their one and only debate. Democrat kaine has the simpler task do no harm. But pence must try to arrest the Trump Campaigns slide after Donald Trumps debate performance and a bad week of selfinflicted wounds. Kaine is 58, in his first term as u. S. Senator from virginia. He also served as governor and mayor of richmond. Pence is 57. He is in his first term as governor of indiana. He gave up running for reelection to be trumps running mate. Pence served six terms in the u. S. House of representatives. The debate tonight is being held at Longwood University in farmville, virginia. The moderator is my colleague, Elaine Quijano, of our streaming news service, cbsn. And as soon as its over, were going to get Immediate Reaction from voters in cleveland. Cbs news political director and the anchor of face the nation, John Dickerson, is in farmville tonight. John. Scott, in a year where voters say they dont want politics as usual, we have two veteran politicians sitting across the table from each other in a year where the candidates at the top of the ticket have traded some pretty harsh insults, you have two men known for their more peaceful demeanor. It could be a substantive debate, except for the political pressure tonight is for both men to keep everyone focused on the flaws of their opponent at the top of the other ticket. Pelley nancy cordes is covering the clinton campaign. Reporter scott, kaines goal tonight will be to force pence to defends, or disins himself from trump on any number of fronts from trumps taxes to his comments about women, to his role in the birther movement. Kaine is also going to try to argue to that very small sliver of undecided voters that pence wouldnt abe moderating force on trump as Vice President , that hes actually far more conservative on social issues like access to abortion and gay rights. Pelley Major Garrett is covering the Trump Campaign. Reporter scott, governor pence will try to regain momentum lost for the Trump Campaign by focusing, at least initially, on four key issues its lack of wage growth biewrg the obama economic recovery. Ongoing problem with the Affordable Care act. Ted two issues related to secretary Hillary Clintons role as secretary of state. Pelley Major Garrett, nancy cordes, John Dickerson, thanks very much. Longwood university is one of the oldest schools in virginia. Lets go down to the can be and our moderator Elaine Quijano. Good evening. From Longwood University in farmville, virginia, and welcome to the first and only Vice President ial debate of 2016, sponsored by the commission on president ial debates. Im Elaine Quijano, anchor at cbsn, and correspondent for cbs news. Its an honor to moderate this debate between senator tim kaine and governor mike pence. Both are longtime Public Servants who are also proud fathers of sons serving in the u. S. Marines. The campaigns have agreeded to the rules of this 90minute debate. There will be nine different segments covering domestic and Foreign Policy issues. Each segment will begin with a question to both candidates who will each have two minutes to answer. Then, ill ask followup questions to facilitate a discussion between the candidates. By coins to toss its been determined that senator kaine will be first to answer the opening question. We have an enthusiastic audience tonight. Theyve agreed to only express that enthusiasm once at the end of the debate and right now as we welcome governor mike pence and senator tim kaine. applause cheers nice to meet you, senator. Nice to meet you. Gentlemen, welcome. It truly is a privilege to be with both of you tonight. Id like to start with the topic of president ial leadership. 28 years ago tomorrow night, Lloyd Bentsen said the Vice President ial debate was not about the qualifications for the vice presidency, but how if tragedy should occur, the viep thats step in without any margin for error, without time for preparation, to take over the responsibility for the biggest job in the world. What about your qualities, your skills, and your temperament equip you to step into that role at a moments notice . Senator kaine. Elaine, thank you for being here tonight, and, governor pence, welcome. It is so great to be back at Longwood University in farmville, virginia. This is a very special place. 65 years ago, a young, courageous woman, Barbara Johns led a walkout of hir high school, molten high school. She made history by protesting school segregation. She believed our nation was stronger together, and that walkout led to the brown versus board of education decision that moved us towards the path of equality. I am so proud to be running with another strong, historymaking woman, Hillary Clinton, to be president of the United States. Im proud because her vision of stronger together, building an economy that works for all, not just those at the top, being safe in the order who, not only with a strong military, but also strong alliances to battle terrorism and climate change. And, also, to build a community of respect just like Barbara Johns tried to do 65 years ago. Thats why im so proud to be her running mate. Hillary told me why she asked me to be her running mate. She said the test of a Clinton Administration will not be the signing a bill or the passage of a bill. It will be whether we can make somebodys life better, when weather we can make a classroom a better longrange environment for school kids or teachers. Whether we can make a safer its going to be about results. And she said to me, youve been a missionary and a civil rights lawyer. Youve been a city councilman and mayor. Youve been a Lieutenant Governor and governor, and now a u. S. Senator. I think you will help me figure out how to govern this nation so that we always keep in mind that the success of the administration is the difference we make in peoples lives. And thats what i bring to the ticket, that experience having served at all levels of government. But my primary role is to be Hillary Clintons righthand person and strong supporter as she puts together the most historic administration possible. And i relish that role. Im so proud of her. Ill just say this we trust Hillary Clinton, my wife and i we trust her with the most thing in our lives. We have a son deployed in the marine corps right now. We trust Hillary Clinton as president and the commander in chief, but the thought of donald trump as commander in chief, scares us to death. Governor pence. First off, thank you, elaine, and thank you to Longwood University for their wonderful hospitality, the commission on president ial debates. Its deeply humbling for me to be here, being surrounded by my wonderful family. And, senator kaine, its an honor to be here with you as well. And i just i also want to say i want to say thanks to everyone thats looking in tonight, who understands what an enormously important time this is in the life of our nation. For the last seven and a half years, weve seen americas place in the world weakened. Weve seen an economy stifled by more taxes, more regulation, a war on coal and a Failing Health care reform come to be known as obamacare, and the American People know we need to make a change. So i want to thank all of you for being with us tonight. I also want to thank donald trump for making that call and inviting us to be a part of this ticket. I have to tell you, im a im a smalltown boy from a place not too different from farmville. I grew up with a cornfield in my backyard. High grandfather had immigrated to this country when he was about my sons age. My mom and dad built everything that matters in a small town in southern indiana. They built a family and a good name and a business, and they raised a family. I dreamed some day of representing my home town in washington, d. C. , but i honestly, elaine. Never imagined, never imagined id have the opportunity to be governor of the state that i love, let alone be sitting at a table like this in this kind of position. So to answer your question, i would say i would hope that if if the responsibility ever fell to me in this role, that i would meet it with the way im going to meet the responsibility should i be elected Vice President of the United States. And thats to bring a lifetime of experience, a lifetime growing up in a small town, a lifetime where ive served in the congress of the United States, where ive led a state that works in the great state of indiana, and whatever other responsibilities might follow from this, i would hope and, frankly, i would pray to be able to meet that moment with that that lifetime of experience. Senator kaine, on the campaign trail, you praised secretary clintons character, including her commitment to public service. Yet 60 of voters dont think shes trustworthy. Why do so many people distrust her . Is it because they have questions about her emails and the Clinton Foundation . Elaine, let me tell you why i trust Hillary Clinton. Heres what people should look at as they look at a Public Servant. Do they have a passion in their life that showed up before they were in public life . And have they held on to that passion throughout their life, regardless of whether they were in office or not, succeeding or failing . Hillary clinton has that passion from the time as a kid in Methodist Youth Group in the suburbs of chicago, she has been focused on serving others with a special focus on empowering families and kids. As a civil rights lawyer in the south with the childrens defense fund, first lady of arkansas, and this country, senator, secretary of state, its always been about putting others first. And thats a sharp contrast with donald trump. Donald trump always puts himself first. He built a Business Career in the word of one of his own Campaign Staffers off the backs of the little guy. And as a candidate, he started his campaign with a speech where he called mexicans rapists and criminals, and he has pursued the discredited and really outrageous lie that president obama wasnt born in the United States. It is so painful to suggest that we go back to think about these days where an African American could not be a citizen of the United States. And i cant imagine how governor pence can defend the insultdriven selfish, me forfirst style donald trump. Let me ask you, you have said donald trump is, thoughtful, compassionate, and steady. Yet 67 of voters feel he is a risky choice, and 65 feel he does not have the right kind of temp early to be president. Why do so Many Americans think thermr. Trump is too erratic . Let me say first and foremost, senator, you and Hillary Clinton would know a lot about an insultdriven campaign. It really is remarkable. They time when literally, in the wake of Hillary Clintons tenure as secretary of state, where she was the architect of the Obama Administrations Foreign Policy, we see entire portioning of the world, particularly the middle east spinning out of control. The situation were watching hour by hour in syria today is the result of the failed Foreign Policy and the weak Foreign Policy that Hillary Clinton helped lead in this administration and create. The newly emboldened, the aggression of russia, whether it was in ukraine or you guys love russia. Your heavy handed approach you have said gentlemen were going to get to russia in just a moment. But i do want to get back thank you, thank you these guys have praised Vladimir Putin as a great leader. We do have that coming up here. In the meantime, the questions were about your running mate. Why the disconnect. In a time of great challenge in the life of this nation, where weve weakened americas place in the world, stifled americas economy, the campaign of Hillary Clinton and tim kaine has been an avalanche of insults. To get to your question of trustworthiness. Donald trump has built a business through hard times and good times. Hes brought an extraordinary business acumen. Hes employeded tens of thousands of people in this country and paid few taxes and lost 1 billion a year. Why the disconnect with your running mates . Theres a reason why people question the trustworthiness of Hillary Clinton. And thats because theyre paying attention. I mean, the reality is when she was secretary of state, senator, come on. She had a Clinton Foundation accepting contributions from foreign governments. Are you Donald Trumps apprentice. Let me talk about this issue a little senator, i think im stoil my time. Isnt this a discussion . This is our open discussion. Lets talk about the state governor, let me interrupt you and finish my sentence, if i can. Finish your sentence. The Clinton Foundation accepted foreign contributions from foreign governments and foreign donors while she was secretary of state. Okay, now i can weigh in. She had a private server i get to weigh in now. Which i did raise. Senator, please, you have an opportunity to out of the reach governor pence doesnt think the worlds going so well, hes going to say its everybodys fault. Do you . Let me tell you this, when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, governor pence, do you know Osama Bin Laden was alive . Yes. Do you know we had 175,000 troops deployed in the battlefield in iraq and afghanistan . Do you know that iran was racing towards a Nuclear Weapon and russia was expanding its stockpile. Under secretary clintons leadership she was part of the Public Safety team that went after and revived the hunt against bin laden and wiped him off the face of the earth. She reduced the russians chemical weapons stockpile, worked a tough negotiation with nations around the world to eliminate the iranian Nuclear Weapons program without firing a shot. Eliminate the iranian Nuclear Weapons program . Thats right, without firing a shot. And instead of 175,000 american troops deployed overseas, we now have 15,000. And these are. And iraq has been overrun by isis because Hillary Clinton failed to renegotiate if you want more troops in iraq, you can propose that. Hillary clinton failed to renegotiate a status of forces agreement. That is incorrect. And we removed all our troops from iraq id like on correct and overrun vast yairlz of iraq. President bush said we would leave iraq at the end of 2011. And, elaine, iraq didnt want our troops to stay and wouldnt give us the protection for our troops. And guess what . If a nation where our troops are serving, does not want us to stay, were not going to stay without them being protected. Its the failure of the secretary of state were going to move on to the next topic, gentlemen. There are a lot of people in it this country worried about the economy. According to the Nonpartisan Committee for a responsible federal budget, neither of your economic plans will reduce the growing 19 trillion Gross National debt. In fact, your plans would add even more to it. Both of you were governors who balanced state budgets. Are you concerned that adding more to the debt could be disastrous for the country . Governor pence. I think the fact that under this past administration of which Hillary Clinton was a part, weve almost doubled the national debt. Its atrocious. I mean, im very proud of the fact they come from a state that works, the state of indiana has balanced budgets. We cut taxes. We made record investments in education and in infrastructure, and i still finished my term with 2 billion in the bank. Thats a little bit different than when senator kaine was governor here in virginia. He actually he actually tried to raise taxes by about 4 billion. He left his state about 2 billion in the hole. The state of indiana, weve cut unemployment in half. Unemployment doubled when he was governor. Fithink hes a very fitting running mate for Hillary Clinton. Because in the wakeave season wh