know we are on your side. if we ever are in a position to do the things we can do for you, we will be right back i give you my word. -- we will. i give you my word. way and nothe right be afraid to cast a ballot. not be afraid to be intimidated. thanks, everybody. i appreciate you also much. have a great rest of your day. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] joe biden is on the road today and pennsylvania. he is traveling to gettysburg for a campaign event. we will have live coverage when he begins his remarks here on c-span. ahead of the only vice presidential debate of campaign 2020 taking place tomorrow, we are joined by joel goldstein of st. louis state university law

professor, author of the book, "the white house vice presidency: the path to significance." how much of a spotlight does president trump's coronavirus diagnosis put on tomorrow night vice presidential debate? certainlyhink it enhances the importance. this would be the 11th vice president of debate but the first time that the two vice presidential candidates have seriousin the shadow of presidential illness. the fact that the two presidential candidates are the oldest national party candidates to ever run for the presidency already lends some importance to the debate. as your question suggests, this unique situation certainly enhances all the more. host: is there any specific advantage or disadvantage for kamala harris or vice president

biden with the age of the two candidates and now the health condition of president trump? i don't know that there is an advantage or disadvantage. i think it may change a little bit the tenor of the debate. usually vice presidential debates are not so much about the two vice presidential candidates although they are trying to credential eyes themselves as plausible presidents and vice presidents. primarily onfocus the competing presidential candidates. this debatek that for a number of reasons including the president's covid-19 positive test in this instance, there may be more focused on the two vice presidential candidates. host: the vice presidential debate, usually the debate that

gets the lowest ratings when it comes to debate season ahead of an election. has there ever been a race -altering moment in a vice presidential debate? guest: that is a good question. it is hard to know exactly whether something is a race-altering moment. i think there was one perhaps. first vicee very presidential debate between senators walter mondale and bob dole. senator dole toward the end of the debate made the reference the wars of the 20th century had been democrat wars and cost america a lot of lives. senator mondale responded that senator dole had earned his reputation as a hatchet man, that it was inconceivable that he would present or

the war in korea as a partisan venture. which camedebate late in the campaign cycle, governor jimmy carter started mentioning senator mondale much more frequently in his discussions and speeches. mondale spent a fair amount of time in some of the competitive states during the last couple weeks of the campaign. in some of those states, ohio, pennsylvania, carter nearly won. -- narrowly won. i think it made a difference in the 1976 outcome. in 2000, dick cheney was perceived to have won the vice presidential debate, to have presented himself as a rational,

sober, which were person -- mature person. it may be that they perception would be surrounded by people like mr. cheney contributed to his very narrow election victory. host: we are talking about the vice presidency, the debate taking place tomorrow in utah. guest, st.ein is our louis university school of law professor, author of the book, "the white house vice presidency : the past to significance." i want to let you know that the house is expected to come in for a brief pro forma session at 9:00 a.m. eastern. we would like our callers is to stick with us. we will go there for live coverage when the house does come in. we will be back with professor goldstein on the other side of that. please do stay on the lines. line up is tina on the

for those who support the biden harris ticket. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i was wondering, i had not heard about what the questions would be from the moderator for the vice president debate. i had not heard what they would have lined up for the candidates. host: professor goldstein? guest: the moderator, susan page, a very distinguished journalist, i have not seen a summary of what the questions would be. but i would certainly assume that they will be -- there will be discussion of a range of issues including the coronavirus .andemic

vice president pence is the chair of the task force that has been handling it. i would think that there would be questions that would deal with the supreme court ,omination of judge barrett senator harris is a member of the judiciary committee that next week will begin its hearings, or is scheduled to, and a range of other issues including the economy, racial justice, long orders, other issues like that -- law and order. host: ones are split up by those who support the biden harris ticket, those who support the trump pence ticket, and those who are undecided. good morning. caller: good morning. pence'ry concerned about s stance when he was in his own state, the lack of support for

the lgbt community. i am obviously gay and very active in the sonoma county pride festivals and events and we are really concerned about that. i'm also concerned about his lack of leadership on the coronavirus as head of the task force. he has shown no individuality and no willingness to stand out on his own and confront trump on issues that are very important and controversial. goldstein?ssor guest: certainly vice president pence has been very conservative of social policy and rights for lgbtq communities.

certainly one of those issues dating back to his time in indiana. the supreme court, two of the justices yesterday expressed misgivings about the supreme court's decision recognizing the right of same-sex couples to marry. i think that could be one of the issues that is discussed. ter and walterty mondale created the new vice presidency, one of the things that mondale communicated to 'srter was the vice president function op to be in part to make sure that the president gets advice and is willing to tell the pde that he or she may not want to hear. vice president mondale certainly played that role.

most of our vice presidents have , it is not clear to what extent a vice president -- vice president pence has assumed that role or not. i think that concern is one that others have had an shared. -- and shared. host: we remind viewers about the 2016 vice presidential debate. vice president mike pence's performance against senator tom kane. who won that debate? guest: it is always difficult to say who one. -- who won. i think governor pence was thought to have them very well. vice president pence is a very able communicator. he had a background as a talk show host before he was into politics. i think he is one of the more effective spokesperson in the

trump administration. he stays on message very well. he communicates the points that he wants to make. he seemed to be very much at ease in the setting. who is one of the very able members of the united states senate seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable in the or attackingcize the opposing party and some people thought that he did not do that as naturally as >> "washington journal" continues. the: we take a look at battle for control of the senate. we are joined by jessica taylor of the nonpartisan, cook political report. it will take a net gain of four seats for the democrats to take the senate, three if they also

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