hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in longwood university, site of tonight's vice presidential debate. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. up first, the number two names on the ticket go one-on-one in their only debate just hours from now. the vice presidential debate comes 35 days and counting until the presidential election. here in the united states. democrat, tim kaine. republican mike pence. they will square off as hillary clinton regains momentum and donald trump fends off questions about his taxes.

voters are evenly split over which vice presidential candidate will do a better job in tonight's debate's in our brand new poll, 38% expect kaine to come out on top. 38% also say pence will come out on top. of course, you can see the debate right here on cnn. it starts 9:00 p.m. eastern. scheduled to last 90 minutes with no commercials. it will consist of nine segments each, ten minutes long after a coin toss, tim kaine goes first. each segment will open with a question and the candidates will have two minutes for their initial response. the presidential candidates and their surrogates fanned out across the campaign trail today. hillary clinton and daughter chelsea took part in the a town hall in pennsylvania. bill clinton rallied supporters in athens, ohio. and comparing in charlotte, north carolina and donald trump took part in an energy roundtable in denver. bring in our senior washington

correspondent jeff zeleny and jim acosta covering the trump campaign. so jeff, let me start with you. tim kaine's strategy tonight. what is it? >> tim kaine's strategy tonight, wolf, a couple things. one, continue the argument or try to continue the argument, against donald trump that has been playing out over the last three days or so about his tax returns and what was in them. he will continue to prosecute sort of all of that. but i think it's something else as well. it is to get some voters comfortable, try to get them comfortable with hillary clinton herself. with her honesty, trustworthiness. his double task tonight, if you will, is to take on donald trump in ways that she has and keep this momentum alive. one thing about vice presidential debates that can be interesting, they can keep things going, or they can sort of halt things. republicans would love for the script to be flipped a little tonight. it's tim kaine's job to make sure that does not happen. >> and the jim acosta, what about mike pence?

reverse a tough week for donald trump? >> right. mike pence has been described as trump's explainer in chief, the way that barack obama had bill clinton as his explainer in chief four years ago. you know, from talking to people close to mike pence and close to this process they say he is ready. the indiana governor is ready for the trump tax attacks, he'll respond to those and take the fight to hillary clinton on foreign policy, on the clinton foundation. on benghazi. you name it. they feel there's a target-rich environment not tapped into because of this pretty negative news cycle they've been in the last week and a half. it's also a study of in contrast between donald trump and mike pence. mike pence has been preeparing for this vice presidential debate since he got the nod from donald trump back in july. contrast that with the preparation donald trump put into the process before his debate in hofstra. no comparison. why tonight, you know, people calling this the thriller in vanilla and war of the bores maybe. this could be scrappy tonight because these or two political

pros who are going to be prepared. >> with a lot of experience. >> yes. >> and both prepared. new polls, poll numbers, just coming out this hour, jeff, in key battleground states. i know you've got the numbers. >> right. we do. start with pa. a new monmouth university poll in pennsylvania has hillary clinton at 50%. donald trump at 40%. that 10-point difference between the two of them, one of the biggest margin seen in pennsylvania. it may be a slight outlier. we'll see. she definitely has an edge here in pennsylvania, but is campaigning in pennsylvania. one of the reasons is it is one week before the deadline to register people to vote. why this is so key in pennsylvania. we also have numbers, though, coming in from north carolina, and elon university a poll here showing hillary clinton at 45%. donald trump at 39% and of course gary johnson at 9% here. gary johnson is significant in north carolina. so many college students, colleges in north carolina. keep your eye on that. all after those first debates. a slightly higher edge than

we've seen in other surveys, but the clinton campaign also focused on north carolina. that's why michelle obama is there campaigning as well today, wolf. >> enk stand by. the first lady, michelle obama, she's speaking in a rally for hillary clinton in charlotte, north carolina. let's live in. >> -- children's health as first lady for quality child care as a senator, and when she didn't become president in 2008, hillary didn't just throw in the towel. no. she once again answered the call to serve, and earned sky-high approval ratings. she earned sky-high approval ratings as our secretary of state. and for those who question her stamina to be president -- hillary's resilience is more than proven as she said in the debate last week, she's the only candidate in this race who has

traveled to 112 countries, who has negotiated a cease-fire, a peace agreement, a release of dissidents. who spent 11 hours testifying before congressional committee. hillary clinton is tough. see, i've watched her. when she gets knocked down, she doesn't complain. she doesn't cry foul. no. she gets right back up. comes back stronger. for the people who need her most. and let's not forget that hillary is one of the few people on this entire planet and clearly the only person in this race, who has any idea what this job entails. the staggering stakes, the brutal hours, the overwhelming stresses. see, and this is the beauty of it. she knows this, and yet she still is willing to do this job. see -- because hillary was

raised to believe that she has an obligation to use her talents to help as many people as possible. and that is why she's running. see, now, for me, that's dedication. that's what love of country looks like. so when i hear folks saying that they're just not feeling inspired in this election -- i really have to disagree. because right now we have an opportunity to elect one of the most qualified people who has ever endeavored to become president. hillary, i remind people, hillary has been a lawyer, a law professor, first lady of arkansas, first lady of the united states, a u.s. senator, secretary of state -- see, charlotte, that is why i'm

inspired by hillary. that's why i'm here. i'm inspired by her persistence and consistency, i'm inspired by her lifelong record of service. no one in our lifetime has ever had as much experience and exposure to the presidency. not barack, not bill, nobody. and, yes, she just happens to be a woman. [ cheers ] so as someone who is experienced this, trust me, experience matters. preparation matters. temperament matters. and hillary clinton has it all. she is the real deal, and i have come to know her very well over the years. and i know that she is more than

ready, more than able to be an outstanding president for us all. so we cannot afford to squander this opportunity. particularly given the alternative. because we know that being president isn't anything like reality tv. this is not an apprenticeship. it's about whether someone can handle the awesome responsibility of leading this country. so, really, take the time and think about this. as you prepare to make this decision and this decision is yours, i urge you to ignore the chatter and the noise and ask yourselves, which candidate really has the experience, the maturity and the temperament ho handle this awesomely hard job? which candidate's words and

actions speak to the values we all share, values like inclusion, opportunity, sacrifice for others? because your answers to these questions on election day will determine who sits in the oval office after barack obama. and i want to be very clear -- elections are not just about who votes, but who doesn't. so for any of you who might be thinking that your one vote doesn't really matter, or that one person really can't make a difference, i want you to consider this, and i share this with everyone, because it's the same in every election, every election. not just the presidency. but back in 2008, barack won north carolina by about 14,000 votes. [ cheers and applause ] and that sounds like a lot. but when you break that number

down, the difference between winning and losing this state was a little over two votes per precinct. do you -- do you hear that? if just two or three forkes per precinct had gone the other way or stayed at home, barack would have lost this state. but then let's not forget what happened in 2012. barack actually did lose this state by about 17 votes per precinct. so i just want you all to think about it. everybody in this room who didn't vote, everybody that didn't pick up the phone who thought, i didn't feel good. i forgot. i didn't talk to my mother. i didn't pick her up. it didn't matter. what does it matter? it matters. do you hear me? it matters. so the fact is that each of you, just in this hall could swing an entire precinct and win this election for hillary. just by getting yourselves, your

friends, your family, that's it, out to vote. just take care of you. find a neighbor, find a friend. you can win this. but you could also help swing an entire precinct for hillary's opponent -- >> we're going to continue to follow the first lady of the united states, michelle obama speaking in charlotte. you see on the right part of your screen, mike pence, the republican vice presidential nominee just arrived here at longwood university in farmville, virginia. he's going to be doing a little walk-through. go up on the stage, getting feeling for that as both of these, the republican and the democratic vice presidential candidates will have an opportunity to do. it's a very important part of the predebate preparation. i want to get quick reaction to what we just heard from the first lady. jeff zeleny, jim acosta are still with us. even before we started to listen to her live, she made three points about donald trump, jeff. she said, he can't be trusted with nuclear codes. he has no problem mocking

women's appearances and he doesn't understand soldiers and their issues. very strong words, very political words from the first lady. >> incredibly strong words from her and words she's been making as she's been campaigning across the country for hillary clinton and it's both a good thing and a bad thing, i think, for the clinton campaign, that the first lady is out there. one, it's a sign they know that they need more enthusiasm among their democratic base. so that is why she's in north carolina, one week to go before voter registration, but i was struck by how she was breaking down the map there at the end. 17 votes per precinct would have flipped it the other way. she is really trying to get people engaged, and it will take a village tovoters enthused about the election. she's one of the most popular messengers out there in all of politicians. >> a big asset for hillary clinton and in north carolina. a poll, hillary clinton 49%,

trump 39%. if if goes for the democratic candidate a huge win. >> hashed for donald trump to figure a way to win this electoral college map if he doesn't have north carolina. polls showing up until this debate in hofstra, this damaging week for donald trump, he was inching towards getting ahead in north carolina. very good news for the trump campaign. back to what jeff said about what michelle obama was talking about, donald trump said out on the campaign trail yesterday he did not mean what beam saying with respect to soldiers coming back with ptsd and not being strong enough. he said he did not mean that. those words were taken out of context. we should point out, this is the most political we've heard michelle obama sound in her last eight years of first lady. shows you ow concerned the white house is about winning this race. they are nervous at that white house about hillary clinton's chances at this point. >> certainly are and why they're out there in full scale. >> absolutely.

>> thanks very much, guys. i want to get the republican take on tonight's debate and more. sean spicer is with us, chief strategist, communications director for the republican national committee. thanks very much for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> your quick reaction what we just heard from the first lady of the united states. donald trump can't be trusted with nuclear codes, mocks women's appearances doesn't understand soldiers and their views? >> i agree with what jim said. i think the white house realizes that they are aware hillary clinton has an enthusiasm gap. people are not excited the way they were for barack obama, especially the first time, never mind the second. getting minority voters young voters excited about a hillary clinton. in general a problem with voters who don't trust hillary clinton. they recognize that and are going as jeff and jim pointed out, you see a first lady largely that's been policy and issue focused getting out there swinging harder than ever. that really epitomizes how concerned they are hillary clinton can't deliver.

>> since that first presidential debate her numbers have gone up. got an nice boost. >> right. >> his numbers have gone down. >> seen a back and forth in the last week. two polls out, "l.a. times" poll and show donald trump ahead two and five points respectively. i admit, we're in a neck-and-neck race. statewise and nationally, gives us an opportunity to draw the contrast. what mike pence will do tonight. get in there talk about the differences of accomplishment between him and tim kaine and frankly the difference in philosophy between he and donald trump and hillary clinton and tim kaine. a bill difference. the first lady interesting when talking was reading off a litany of how long basically hillary clinton's been in washington, and one of the things interesting is i think they believe that that's a strength. they believe that 30 years of washington insider is a positive thing, and that's the same with tim kaine. governor, senator, mayor of richmond. they come into this believing that more time in government is good. i think that the pence/trump

team believes being the agent of change, talking about shaking things up is actually what voters are looking for and that's where the disconnect is right now. >> mike pence, vice presidential running mate, he spent a lot of time in government, too. member of congress for a long time. >> member of congress. one de one-term governor. they talk about the accomplishments they have, not the time served. tim kaine governor the virginia, taxes went up. under mike pence in indiana, taxes gone down, unemployment gone down. talking about his accomplishments as governor, things he delivered for the american people. tim kaine and hillary clinton are stuck on how many years in washington they've served. >> look at this pennsylvania. monmouth university poll out this hour. in pennsylvania. he has worked hard. thinks he can taurn thurn that n his favor pap ten-point advantage in pa panchts i don't think it's that much and i i groo with jeff, an outlier poll. i think she's probably a couple

points ahead now, but he is putting in more and more time. you'll continue to see him and governor pence out there. the ground game we put together in pennsylvania ensures we know who are voter, where potential persuadable voters are and a reason pennsylvania is where it is on the map. really interesting thing is, because it's in a, it's an election day, they don't have a robust early vote program, that we know that we can go in there and continue to fight hard all the way through election day. >> have you been involved in helping mike pence get ready for tonight's event? >> i have not. >> in presidential debates, involved at all? >> tangentially. >> what does that offer? >> out offer up advice when asked. >> is donald trump doing a better job getting ready for the sunday debate? >> he is. he did a good job last time. he has spent a lot of time with his, the issue advisers and political advisers preparing for the debate. i admit there's a lot of things we probably could have hit her harder on last time or missed opportunities. but when you look at by and

large what the clinton campaign wanted out of that last debate, wanted him to make a gaffe. talked where he was on issues. stood firm on trade. she didn't. i think it's, you know, if anyone was graded on a curve it was was hillary clinton. donald trump stood strong. >> all the polls, not outlying polls are not svg and polls, surveys, really, all the serious polls, state polls, you well know, national polling showed she won the debate decisively. >> okay. but if you look at that, you have president kerry and president gore. i mean, john kerry won every single of those debates against george bush. three in a row, mostly fairly wide margins and didn't turn out well. in donald trump continues to deliver the message of change make sure hillary clinton it continued to be tagged at the candidate of the establishment and the status quo, that's the contrast we want to drive and there's a reason that this enthusiasm gap exists because people are tired of washington politicians and want something

new. >> enthusiasm gop diminished -- >> but we still have the advantage. again, but part of it is some of her folks coming home. they continue to have that problem with minorities and youth part of that niche coalition they have to tie together to win. >> the first lady is out there trying to redlaet obama coalition that got him elected president twice. >> right. >> all right. thanks very much for joining us. up next, team clinton hopes their vice presidential candidate can keep up the attacks that hillary clinton has been hitting over the past week, but are her attacks on bill clinton's mistresses fair game for republicans as they are suggesting? we'll take a quick break and be right back. by the way, the vice presidential running mates mike pence on the republican side, you saw him arriving here at longwood university in farmville, virginia, moments ago. doing a little tour of the stage. full coverage of that and a lot more when we come back. for lower back pain sufferers, the search for relief often leads... here... here... or here.

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welcome back to longwood university here in farmville, virginia. that's the site of tonight's vice presidential debate. hillary clinton's running mate tim kaine will try build on her momentum, but donald trump's running mate mike pence is likely to go on the attack against hillary clinton's record. aim klobuchar democratic minnesota strong supporter of hillary clinton, and tim kaine for that matter as well. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. a lot of excitement in farmville. >> here are surprising words from bill clinton, on the campaign trail once again during a stop in flint, michigan. he said this -- about obama care. listen to this. >> but the people who are getting killed in this deal are small business people and

individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies. why? because they're not organized they don't have any bargains power with insurance companies, and they're getting whacked. so you've got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people out there busting it sometimes 60 hours a week wind up with their premiums doubled and coverage cut in half. it's the craziest thing in the world. >> this is the legacy of president obama. obama care, affordable care act. he's proud of that, and here you have bill clinton saying it's a crazy system. the craziest thing in the world. how do you explain that? >> i think many of us including hillary clinton want to see changes to the affordable care act. for me it's always been a beginning not an end and very difficult whether my case, the medical device tax repeal, whether bringing down the cost of the pharmaceutical under medicare part d or stopping

crazy practices where the generics and the big pharma come together and pay each other off to keep products off the market. those things have to stop, and all he's saying here, in my mind, i wasn't there, is that we have to make changes to this bill. and it's crazy that we can't make changes to the bill, but the reason we haven't made changes is that the republicans every time we want to propose something say it should be repealed. my hope is that hillary clinton with her strong health care background knowing how complex all of this is can come in and work with both sides of the aisle to get those changes made, exactly five weeks from today the election will take place. is this the time with five weeks to go for bill clinton could be calling obama care the craziest thing in the world and to be saying, so many millions of americans are having trouble paying for their medical insurance, if you will, because the prices have gone up so high? >> i think this is something that -- >> is that smart for him to do? is that going to help? >> i'm not going to second guess what he said there.

bill clinton throughout this campaign has been out there for hillary clinton every step of the way. everyone, sometimes when they say thing maybe doesn't the pick the right choice of words. the point is, hillary clinton has been clear. especially it's cost of prescription drugs, what's happened with epipens we need to bring down costs of health care drugs and make exchanges to the exchange and for small businesses as he points out and make it easier for them to get in. >> crazy system. that's what he's calling it. pretty -- republicans, of course, and the trump campaign really using this already. >> of course they are. >> press releases. >> yes. >> last night governor pence, the republican vice presidential candidate, he said this about tonight's debate. hillary's record on foreign affairs alone could literally take up the entire 90 minutes, and it wouldn't be pretty. i assume you're expecting pence to really go on the attack on foreign affairs, on libya, iraq, syria, iran. all of that region clearly in

horrible shape right now from the u.s. perspective. >> i think first of all you have to look at the fact, who is his running mate? who is running for president? that's donald trump. look what tim kaine is going to be able to focus on with foreign relations and by the way, tim kaine has done really strong job in the senate calling for an authorization of military force debate so the congress isn't hiding from its duties. but tim kaine is going to be able to say, look, donald trump, he wants to destroy our nato alines, talked about adding nuclear weapons to asian countries that don't even have them. he's focused on building walls instead of building bridges and going to be able to really talk about some of the things, not to mention trump's continuing double down on his friendship with putin and his respect for putin at the same week that we hear that the russians, there's strong evidence they brought down that plane that ukraine. >> he doesn't want to bring down -- nato allies have to pick up their own expenditures and

pay what they're supposed to pay to make it a more viable alines. >> correct, but willing soy-of-to say we can let nato guy at a time russia has been more aggressive than we've sneen decade. >> he wants -- >> that's okay. >> let's talk about some that fully could come up in tonight's debate, out there and donald trump threatened to really go after hillary clinton for her response to the allegations of her husband's infidelityears. this was a sound bite that the republicans, the trump campaign, they're using right now when she reacted to gennifer flowers back in 1992, accusing bill clinton of having a sexual affair with her. listen to this. >> if somebody's willing to pay you $130,000 or $170,000 to say something and you get your 15 minutes of fame and get your picture on the front page of every newspaper and you're some failed cabaret singer. >> all right, now, bill clinton

later acknowledged he did have an fair with gennifer flowers. how's she going to respond to that? say trump or pence does that, goes after not necessarily bill clinton but her for the way she reacted to these women? >> the first thing we have to remember is bill clinton is not on the ballot. a lot of our discussion today. hillary clinton is on the ballot. i don't think when you have donald trump as the lead candidate who has three marriages in his past, whereas the clintons have been married, what, 40-some years including tim kaine married for a long period of time as well, and his two spokespeople on this newt gingrich and rudy giuliani, between trump, gingrich and giuliani they have nine marriages between them. i don't really think they're the ones that should be throwing stones. >> but if they do, what is the clinton campaign going to do. >> the answer, look at hillary clinton's record. maybe from time to time i think anyone that was in that situation, difficulties in their marriage, may say things they might regret, but that is not defining her career. no one looked at her, you don't

see series of year after year her attacking these women. in fact, she stood up for woman. stood up for women's rights. made that historic speech, women rights are human rights, human rights are women's rights and every step of the way she has stood up for women and families including the policies that she's come forward with that i know tim kaine will talk about tonight. >> the vice president, the current vice president, joe biden, he gave an interview with cnn's chris cuomo and here's how he described the final home stretch of this race. >> our job here is to get a focus on what really matters. what's going to change the circumstance from middle-class person? i know hillary feels that, but every time she expresses a motion she gets clobbered. she gets clobbered. >> do you agree with him? >> i think what ereally agree with is this idea that this last month of the campaign starting tonight and hillary's doing everything she can to do this.

we need to talk about thicks that things that matter to people. students who can't afford their loans, people who can't afford to buy a house. we heard from trump time and time again, going after veterans with traumatic stress disorder, going after miss universe, takes a lot of oxygen out of the debate. when he made the admission, last debate, smart to maybe not pay my taxes and we see his tax rush, that's borne out. connecting those, his actions with building up this huge debt, with his policies, which is to have a $5 trillion in debt. what the non-part srt cbo assessed or his policies to help the people at the top the most. that actually is in -- it is connected to his business career and what he's done to people that have worked for him, and i want to see those cases be made as well as the case about hillary clinton's plan for the economy. >> senator klobuchar, thanks for coming in. >> fun tonight. >> you'll be watching and in

that spin room afterwards as well. appreciate it very much. >> thank you. up next, what strengths do tim kaine and mike pence bring to their running mates? we'll give you a breakdown, our panelists are standing by. live here at longwood university. (♪) (♪) when you are suffering from chest congestion try mucinex 12-hour. mucinex is absorbed 60 percent faster than store brands. and lasts a full 12 hours. relieve chest congestion with mucinex, and enjoy living well.

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we're back here, live at longwood university in farmville, virginia. just a few hours away from the vice presidential candidates debate and mike pence and tim kaine getting ready for their first and only debate. with us, mark preston and phillip rucker national political reporter for the "washington post." and dana bash. dana, talk about what highlighted this campaign so far, highlighted, tim kaine and mike pence. you pointed out what was said at the human rights campaign dinner last month. listen to this. >> mike pence is a guy who believes marriage equality will cause a "social collapse."

and of course, he ran a one-man crusade to allow indiana businesses acting in the public commercial sphere to discriminate against lgbtq americans. yet donald trump saw this and decided, this is the person that i want helping me govern this country. >> so is this an effective attack line line that's going to be used to try to help hillary clinton? >> likely. depends on where the conversation goes and where the debate goes, but this is also one of the few issues where mor the liberal side or if you're more moderate, i think the way they would view it, a more palatable side of the two of them. because mike pence has been obviously not only quite conservative on lgbt issues but had the controversial law in indiana that you can't even imagine donald trump doing. so that, i think, is the one

issue where if tim kaine wants to go at mike pence, the person, as opposed to mike pence the guy running with donald trump, he has an opening there. >> you also pointed out, mark, the first joint interview that hillary clinton and tim kaine did after she selected him, this was on "60 minutes." i'll play the clip. >> i'm grateful to you, hillary, for the trust that you've placed in me, and we're going to be -- [ speaking in foreign language ]. in this great -- [ cheers and applause ] >> correction. that was their first joint rally. not the first joint interview they did. you thought that was significant. >> significant because if you remember that moment in time, right before the democratic convention. tim kaine announced the night before. leaked the night before, and really solidified why hillary clinton chose tim kaine. tim kaine was able to give a little life to hillary clinton we hadn't seen. noticed during the rail we saw in the clip, hillary clinton is sitting in the back, smiling,

seemed happy, seemed energized at a time during the campaign coming out of the republican convention, she didn't have that bit of energy. in addition we also saw tim kaine using his language skills, speaking in spanish to an audience that hillary clinton and tim kaine need. they need the hispanic vote to get out and in big numbers to win. >> what struck you about that? >> interesting because tim kaine also, he embodied the stronger together theme that hillary clinton has. he has a background here in virginia fighting for civil rights as a civil rights lawyer. speaks spanish. helped round out the image but also softened some of hillary clinton's edges. brings her an authenticity she sometimes struggles with on the trail and balances out the ticket. he helps in that way. >> not long ago, play an exchange how mike pence is preparing for tonight's debate. >> we're preparing in a very traditional way. my running mate is a masterful

debater. >> i want to make sure that i'm ready to tell donald trump's story to the nation. i want to be able to reflect on this ideas to make america great again, and to really have a stronger, a stronger and more prosperous america at home and abroad. >> so what's your sense of the way he's preparing the messaging tonight? >> well, you just heard, i want to tell donald trump's story. that's what really struck me about his answer when my question was just generally how are you preparing for the debate? not only is his preparation process incredibly different from donald trump's, it is more traditional. he has been working with a stand-in, somebody playing the role, scott walker, governor of wisconsin playing the role of tim kaine. doing mock debates about once a week. he's been really diving into the policy papers that he's -- >> doing what donald trump didn't? >> right, but also because of the fact that he does differ with donald trump on a lot of issues. the fact that his answer was, i want to tell donald trump's story is quite telling about his

approach to tonight. >> here's that clip i referenced from "60 minutes" that, this is a separate "60 minutes" interview. this is mike pence talking about donald trump a bit. listen to this. >> i promise you that when the circumstances arise where i have a difference on policy or on presentation, i have, i can tell you in my heart i know i would have no hesitation where were i privy to be vice president to walk into the president's office, close the door and share my heart and i also know this good man would listen and has, and has the leadership qualities to draw from the people around him. >> so what impressed you about that? >> well, the fact is, he's loyal to donald trump specifically when donald trump says very outrageous, crass things and mike pence has a political future beyond here, or at least he wants one, and the fact he's staying loyal to donald trump was right after he was announced

as republican presidential nominee and he's continued along that track, and tonight expecting to do the same because i can't imagine that this debate isn't going to be about donald trump, the statements he's made and the issues that divide him, whether it is on trade or banning muslims, or global warming. they differ on a lot of different things, yet he's loyal to donald trump. >> and he tries to clean up when donald trump make as mistake, for example, the khan family, gold star family, at the democratic convention, when donald trump criticized them. listen to this exchange mike pence had with a woman at a town hall. >> you have a son in the military. >> it's okay. >> how do you tolerate his disrespect? >> well, i thank you for the question. it's all right. it's all right. told him stay back and he walked towards the danger. i want to say again, captain khan is an american hero. >> he didn't have any problem saying that. >> no, he didn't, and you know

what? mike pence has been doing throughout this campaign, explaining donald trump and defending limb and he has a pretty warm kind of affable way to do that. sometimes laughs it off. look, donald trump is a family man. not not come through in his rhetoric, believe me, i know him, i know his family, the republicans remain skittish about donald trump as their nominee and pence is evangelizing the ticket the way nobody on the scene is doing. >> so true. >> i suspect tonight's debate, on a relatively high level. >> talking to the campaigns. they want it to be about policy. you hear that a lot from, really to a person, from campaigns and candidates going into debates since the beginning of time, but in this case they actually really mean it. i was talking to one source familiar with it, the prep that mike pence is doing saying that

you know, we know that the -- debates at the top of the ticket are going to be policy oriented also very much about the characters and personalities. we hope in this particular debate we can really chew on some of the really important policy issues where they really are quite different in terms of their approach. not justiously the vp candidates but more importantly, hillary clinton and donald trump. >> i assume tim kaine will use a lot of opportunities to attack donald trump and mike pence use a lot of opportunities to attack hillary clinton in addition to some high-level policy debate they will have. guys, stay with us. coming up, much more from here at the site of the vice presidential debate, plus a powerful and potentially destructsive hurricane is churning through the caribbean right now and could be headed towards the u.s. mainland. just ahead, we're going to have the latest track, the timeline for the storm. plus, we're going to tell you what the president of the philippines said about president obama and how the white house has just reacted.

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we're back here on the campus of longwood university in farmville, virginia. it's a beautiful campus. this is the site of the vice presidential debate coming up later tonight. but there are other important stories we're also following, including another big story involving a hurricane. hurricane matthew in this particular case. this is still a category four storm and it's pounding haiti right now. at least two people have been killed, the death toll is expected to rise. here in the united states, florida governor rick scott has declared a state of emergency and he's warning residents. our meteorologist jennifer gray is at the cnn weathercenter following this hurricane. do we know where the storm is headed next, jennifer? >> well, we do, wolf, next up is cuba. we are expecting a second landfall later today on the east side of cuba and then it will be heading into the southern bahamas and into the northern

bahamas. right now still a very powerful category four storm. we should get our next update within moments before 2:00 but right now latest advisory, 145 mile per hour winds, gusts of 175, moving to the north at 10 miles per hour. of course, like we said, this is a very dangerous category four storm with 175 mile per hour winds. now, the hurricane-force winds extent about 60 miles from the center. tropical storm force winds extend about 185 miles from the center and so the impacts can be far-reaching. it is located about 90 miles south of the eastern tip of cuba. and on this latest forecast we noticed it took this dangerous shift to the west yesterday afternoon and the forecast track is still holding to that. i can give you a closer look at this track, wolf, this is a dangerous situation because depending on how far west this

storm actually gets, that's going to mean the difference in how much of an impact will be felt along the southeast coast. that's why florida and all the carolinas of the east coast need to be on the lookout. >> i'm sure they are. we'll be watching this very, very closely. jennifer, thank you very much. there's another story we're following right now. the president of the philippines, rodrigo duterte, is launching a brand new tirade against president obama. the volatile leader is upset over criticism of his anti-drug campaign. duterte said today he may break up with the united states. >> instead of helping us, you can go to hell, mr. obama, you can go to hell. >> if this is what happens now i will be reconfiguring my foreign

policy. eventually i might in my time have a breakup with america. i would rather go to russia and to china. at least even if we do not agree with their ideology, they have respect for the people. >> i want to bring cnn's athena jones. she's at the white house for us. athena, how is the white house reacting to this latest insult from the philippines president? >> hi, wolf. well, white house press secretary josh earnest was asked about this very early in the briefing. he said these latest remarks by president duterte are at odds with the warm relationship that exists between the u.s. and the filipino people. he talked about a 70-year history of working together. people, cooperation, sharing security concerns, maritime and disaster -- working together on maritime security and disaster response and he said that, look, the white house is not going to shy away from bringing up concerns it has about these

extrajudicial killings during this drug crackdown that the philippine president has undertaken. thousands of drug dealers and drug users have been killed in this crackdown. but, you know, this is not the first time, we know, that president duterte has used some colorful language to refer not only to the president but to others, members of the u.s. administration. so the white house is trying to play this down saying the relationship remains solid. wolf? >> very strong words from the philippines president. all right, thanks very much, athena. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. east american the situation room all night for our special coverage of the vice presidential debate. in the meantime, the news continues right after a quick break. with hotels.com's rewards program

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seems like one of those degs where you begged your college professors to have class outside. it's so nice to be here in beautiful farmville, virginia. i'm brooke baldwin, you hear the students behind me. they're small but mighty and crowd here. let me said the scene for you. [ cheers and applause ] a presidential proxy war is about to take place here a couple hours from now. running mates mike pence and tim kaine squaring off in their first and only debate. the stakes are huge. the debate