Campaigns preview VP debate

Officials from Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns on Tuesday shared their expectations for the vice presidential debate just hours before Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Gov. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) take the stage.

{mosads}Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said viewers should expect a “fiery” performance from Pence, who will play a traditional role for a vice presidential nominee: holding the other party’s nominee accountable.

“He will go out there in a fiery performance, especially for somebody who is known for [being] so low-key,” Conway said in an interview with CBS News.

“Doing the job of the vice presidential nominee, which is to hold to account the other party’s nominee and asking those questions about Hillary Clinton’s fairly unremarkable record here in New York as United States senator, the blemishes as secretary of State and really the wrong vision she has.”

Conway described Pence as a “perfect gentlemen” but said he is “there to play.”

“He is there to absolutely do what these vice presidential nominees are doing and what Tim Kaine has been doing on the stump almost exclusively, which is to attack [Republican nominee] Donald Trump.”

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, meanwhile, weighed in on his expectations for Kaine, saying that the Democratic nominee’s running mate will focus mainly on policy.

“What we’re hoping he has the opportunity to do is to talk about the agenda that he and Secretary Clinton have to make the biggest investment in jobs since World War II, help families afford college and healthcare and basically talk about the issues. That’s when we always do best as a campaign,” Mook told CBS News.

“Usually this is a test to see if these candidates are prepared to serve as president. I think both of them are regarded as pretty accomplished public servants. The real question is: Is Mike Pence going to defend Donald Trump?” he added.

The vice presidential debate will take place Tuesday evening at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. and will be moderated by Elaine Quijano of CBS News.