Their turn! Virginia Senator Tim Kaine and Indiana Governor Mike Pence will come face to face for their first — and only — vice presidential debate ahead of the November election, on Tuesday, October 4.
While this debate will likely not pack as much action as the first presidential debate did, Donald Trump will certainly be tuning in. “I will be watching the great Governor @Mike_Pence,” the Republican presidential nominee, 70, tweeted on Monday afternoon. “Enjoy!”
Hillary Clinton also took to Twitter ahead of the event to share her thoughts on her running mate’s opponent. “Tonight, Mike Pence will either have to leave Trump out to dry — or justify the things they both believe,” she wrote.
Here, we’ve rounded up five things to know before the big event:
1. When does the debate start?
Clinton’s and Trump’s running mates will meet on stage at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, at 9 p.m. The debate will run for 90 minutes without commercial breaks and will air on all major television networks and cable channels. Us Weekly will also be live-streaming the big event.
Last week, Clinton, 68, and Trump, 70, battled it out during their own 90-minute debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, on Monday, September 26. Kaine, 58, and Pence, 57, were named Clinton and Trump’s vice presidential picks, respectively, in July.
2. Who is the moderator?
CBS News‘ Elaine Quijano was announced as the VP debate moderator on September 2. Since then, she has stayed off social media and hasn’t tweeted. According to Cosmopolitan, Quijano is the first Asian-American journalist to moderate a national debate. She’s Filipino.
Quijano, 42, covered the White House during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations when she worked at CNN. She joined CBS in 2010.
Lester Holt moderated Clinton and Trump’s first presidential debate. During the event, viewers joked that the NBC anchor had left because he stopped interjecting.
3. What will the format be like?
Kaine and Pence will be seated for a round table discussion instead of standing at podiums. The event will be split into 10-minute segments and each candidate will have two minutes to respond to a question. According to Politico, Gary Johnson‘s running mate Bill Weld and Jill Stein‘s running mate Ajamu Baraka were not invited. Only those who average 15 percent in five national polls are selected to attend.
4. How are Kaine and Pence prepping?
Over the weekend, Kaine revealed that he is going to “be myself” during the debate. “I’m calm,” he told reporters after leaving mass on Sunday in Richmond, Virginia, via ABC. “Things work out the way they are supposed to.”
Kaine previously opened up on September 22 about going up against Pence. “It’s a different kind of a debate for me because I have done debates where it’s, at the end of it, ‘Please vote for Tim Kaine,'” he said at the time on his campaign plane. “If I talk too much about Tim Kaine during my debate, I’m wasting my time. It would not be a good way to use my time, and it is about two visions for the country. And it’s about a Clinton presidency or a [Donald] Trump presidency, so I’m more than a surrogate, because I’m on the ticket. But I am not the main event, so I’m in an in-between space. And I’ve not done that before.”
Pence, meanwhile, said that he’s been prepping since the night Trump asked him to be his VP candidate. “I am doing a little preparation for it,” he told radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt in late September, via ABC. “For my part, my focus the last four years has been and continues to be on leading the state of Indiana. So, I’ve been brushing up on all those Washington issues I used to deal with full time when I was in Congress, but I’m looking forward to a good debate next week.”
5. Where will Clinton and Trump be?
The former secretary of state and the media mogul will surely be watching the debate as they continue on the campaign trail. According to the Los Angeles Times, Clinton is holding a town hall with her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, in Philadelphia and an event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday. She will be back home in Westchester, New York, just in time for the broadcast. Trump is speaking at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, before traveling to Las Vegas.
