US VP Debate: Nominees Wasted No Time Attacking Trump, Clinton

The U.S. vice presidential candidates, Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine, faced off Tuesday night at Longwood University in their only debate of the general election campaign.

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Trump and Clinton's running mates went head to head in Farmville, a town of 8,000 in Virginia, a state that was once reliably Republican but where Clinton now leads in opinion polls. The presidential nominees will be relying on their top surrogates to bolster their arguments to rural voters.

The two candidates wasted no time in launching broadsides against Republican Trump and Democrat Clinton in the opening minutes of their 90-minute debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

"Donald Trump always puts himself first," Kaine, a U.S. senator from Virginia said, pointing out that when Trump began his presidential campaign last year, he called "Mexicans rapists and criminals" and had also voiced the "outrageous lie" that Democratic President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Pence, the governor of Indiana, shot back at Kaine that he and Clinton "would know a lot about an insult-driven campaign" and then accused Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state, of bungling foreign policy with large sections of the Middle East "literally spinning out of control."

The debate was the only one featuring the vice presidential contenders and came as Clinton has edged ahead of Trump in national opinion polls and in some Nov. 8 battleground states where the election is likely to be decided.

Pence also faced tough questions about Trump's taxes and views on women, which have dominated headlines for the past week.

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Kaine, 58, a senator from Virginia, is also the former governor of the state and was mayor of Richmond, the state capital. He lauded Clinton's experience and hammered away at Trump's policies as favoring the wealthy.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee declared Pence the winner hours before the debate even started.

“Americans from all across the country tuned in to watch the one and only Vice Presidential debate,” the page reads. “During the debate we helped fact check and monitor the conversation in real time @GOP. The consensus was clear after the dust settled, Mike Pence was the clear winner of the debate.”