Tim Kaine on What It’s Like to Debate Mike Pence

What is it like debating Mr. Pence? What advice are you going to give to Senator Harris?

I’ll answer the first question, not the second one because we’re in conversation about advice, but why would I make that public?

Pence is a professional communicator. He was a radio talk show host before he was in politics, so he can deliver a line. And, I think it’s frustrating when you’re onstage with somebody who’s delivering a line that’s false. But he does it — he can do it very, very well.

Now, Kamala’s good. She’s a prosecutor, and she has evidence to argue. When she was in court back in the day, she would have to argue the evidence. She’s got a lot of evidence to argue. But the vice president is a trained communicator who can look in a camera and basically say anything, even if it’s contrary to the facts, and say it as if he believes it.

I know you aren’t going to discuss the advice you are giving, but has Senator Harris called you for advice or have you spoken about ——

Yes.

Multiple times? Or how often?

We have communicated — and I’ll just use that phrase more broadly — communicated one-on-one. And our staffs have talked a number of times, and we’re not done.

Given that, as you said, Pence is a professional communicator, does this kind of huge news — in your experience — does he get rattled by it? Is he going to stay the course? What do you think this does for him?

My prediction is — he has done nothing but be a wonderful salesman for Donald Trump and then talk about how great Donald Trump is going to be — he’s going to do that same thing. At the debate, he will be praising his boss over and over again. He stands next to Donald Trump and smiles and nods and talks about how fantastic he is, and he’ll do that at the debate. The challenge for him is, how can you do that without it going in a completely discordant way with Americans who are suffering?