Any signs of momentum loom large with the election just 35 days away. Both president ial candidates seizing on the bombshell report that trump may have legally avoided paying federal income taxes for nearly two decades. I have legally used the tax laws to my benefit. I have brilliantly used those laws. While millions of american families, including mine and yours, were working hard, paying our fair share, it seems he was contributing nothing to our nation. There is a lot to cover this morning, and were following every angle for you of course. Cnns Sunlen Serfaty and Phil Mattingly are in farmville here at Longwood University. Phil, we want to start with you. Good morning. Reporter good morning, carol. For weeks, maybe months Hillary ClintonsCampaign Advisors have been pining, begging, pleading for Donald Trumps taxes to become center stage in this president ial race. Trump has assiduously avoided doing that. No longer because of the revelations from that weekend New York Times story, this is all anybody is talking about on the campaign trail, including donald trump. I understand the tax laws better than almost anyone, which is why i am the one who can fix them. Reporter Dangerous Campaign liability or political opportunity . I have brilliantly used those laws. Reporter donald trump hoping for the latter after the leak of a few pages of his 1995 tax returns. Attempting to turn the fact that he may not have paid federal income tax for years into a testament of his business expertise. As a business person ive legally used the tax laws to benefit, really i mean its to my benefit, and to benefit of my company, my investors, my employees, my family. Reporter the Clinton Campaign attempting to undermine trumps spin. Some of his supporters said, well, it just shows hes a genius that he didnt pay any taxes. Well, what kind of genius loses a billion dollars in the first place . Reporter painting the republican nominee as representing the same system he claims hes going to change. Trump was taking from america with both hands and leaving the rest of us with the bill. Reporter trump trying to downplay the near billion dollar loss the New York Times reported he had leading up to 1995. The conditions facing Real Estate Developers in the early 90s were almost as bad as the Great Depression in 1929 and far worse than the Great Recession in 2008. Reporter while casting himself as the comeback kid. Used the tax laws of our country and my skills as a business person to dig out of this real estate depression when few others were able to do that. I did a great job. Reporter this as trump sparks new criticism after suggesting that veterans suffering from ptsd lacked strength. When people come back from war and combat and they see things that a lot of people in this room have seen, a lot of people can handle it but a lot of people cant handle it. Reporter and, carol, the Trump Campaign is pushing back hard on any criticism about that statement saying it was taken out of context. Thats not what he meant. The marine staff sargeant who actually asked trump that question at that town hall also siding with trump saying he was sickened that trumps words were being twisted out of context. Its important to note that what trump said undercut a key tenant of the treatment process for post Traumatic Stress over what doctors found. It gave an attack line for democrats. Joe biden highlighted that in an interview with cnn. Take a listen. The vast majority of billionaires and multimillionaires, they pay their taxes. I mean, can you imagine warren buffet saying this . Can you imagine steve case saying this . Can you imagine any of these guys saying this . Its just offensive. Whats it say about all the people here, are they all suckers for paying their taxes because they cant hire a tax lawyer, because they couldnt mag significant contributions to try to change the law to benefit themselves . Come on, man. Thats just not right. Reporter carol, obviously joe biden talking about taxes there. I think this is going to be the key issue going forward, whether its the debate now, the debate five days from now when Hillary Clinton or donald trump square off or over the next couple of weeks and months. Donald trump has to find a way to defend this issue and going on offense. Were seeing him try it. He went on offense. When you talk to clinton advisors they make very clear, shes not backing off this issue any time soon. Carol . Phil mattingly reporting live for us this morning. Thank you. So now back to the matter at hand. We are less than 12 hours at hand. We are hours away from the first and only debate with the Vice President ial debate. Cnns Sunlen Serfaty joins us with a preview. Good morning. Reporter good morning, carol. As you noted, a lot is at stake because this is the first and only debate between the two Vice President ial contenders. That is reflected in their level of preparation. Each candidate seems to be taking a very disciplined, very consistent and serious approach as theyve been preparing for the debate over the last weeks and months. We know both of them have been huddling with their aides for a few weeks. Theyve both been running through these fullfledged mock debates. Certainly mike pence as he goes into tonight, he has to know that he is going to be put on the spot about his running mate Donald Trumps tax returns so potentially having to play some cleanup there. We did hear from mike pence at a rally last night where he previewed where he would like the debate to go and hinted that he is ready to attack on senator tim kaines record as governor in virginia. Heres what mike pence said last night. Little bit of a debate with your governor, your former governor and your senator, tim kaine. And ill tell you, while i expect were going to be talking about the visions and the choice the American People face at the top of the ticket, i kind of hope we get to talk about our records as well. Because theyre just a little bit different. I mean, when tim kaine was governor he actually tried to raise taxes by 4 billion in four years. State of indiana, ive signed more than 3. 5 billion in tax relief for working families, Small Businesses and family farms. Reporter and going into tonight senator tim kaine potentially has some home field advantage, this being his home state, but if you look at the latest cnn orc poll you see that voters in terms of the expectations game, its a dead heat between the two of them. Interesting, 24 , nearly 1 4 of all voters say they are unsure about either candidate, either tim kaine or mike pence. So that is a big question mark left on the debate stage. Both candidates, carol, have a huge opportunity to change minds and to reintroduce themselves to the American Voters. Carol . Sunlen serfaty reporting live for us this morning. Thank you. Perhaps the biggest challenge for mike pence and tim kaine making sure voters know who they are as cnns randi kaye hill, both candidates have a long way to go. Reporter whos this . Long pause. I have no idea. Reporter whos that . I have no idea. Reporter youre not starting out well. I know. I have no idea who that is. Reporter whos that guy. Thats tim pence or john pence. Reporter pence, does that sound familiar, mike pence . Thats a big ouch, right . So lets talk about that and more. Errol lewis is here and cnn contributor. Susan paige is with me, the Washington Bureau chief for usa today and mark preston is the executive director for cnn politics. Welcome to all of you. So, mark, you saw randi kaye showing pictures of tim kaine and mike pence around and most people dont know who they are. No, they dont. According to our cnn orc poll, 1 3 of American Voters dont know who either of them are. Think about where we are in this campaign. You have two larger than life personalities, Hillary Clinton, donald trump who are sucking up all the oxygen. This isnt back in 2008 when sarah palin came onto the stage and everybody knew who she was. Look, the focus has been on those two candidates. As you said tonight, their big job is not to make any mistakes and really try to do their best to promote their running mates. Its going to be a difficult task. It will be interesting to see how they handle it. Errol, i wanted to ask you. What is the purpose of this particular Vice President ial debate as it applies to this years election . The way i think of it, carol, you have candidates who are trying to, of course, help their ticket and especially in the case of mike pence, really help the Republican Base that is supporting donald trump to feel more comfortable with him. In other words, it sort of rounds out the ticket to have a social conservative alongside donald trump who on many issues is not socially conservative. Likewise, on the democratic side it helps when you have somebody like Hillary Clinton who is seen as in some cases moderate to conservative democrat to have a tim kaine next to her whos a former civil rights attorney whos taken some liberal stances and has done quite a lot of work on his own. These are both also, we should keep in mind, very ambitious governors, former governor in the case of kaine, who would like to see themselves on a National Ticket in the top position in the future. Theres a lot here in the future for both parties. Thats what im going to be listening for. Okay. Im going to grab on to that. Susan, this is a question for you. Mike pence said things that sometimes differ greatly than donald trump, and hes trying to walk this line. Ill give you just one example. Here are how the running mates feel about the issue of abortion. Im pro life and i dont apologize for it. Thank you. We appoint strict constructionists to the Supreme Court of the United States as donald trump intends to do. I believe you will see roe versus wade consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs. I think it would have been better if it were up to the states, but right now the laws are set and thats the way the laws are. Do you have a feeling how they should change . There are a lot of laws you want to change, on everybody from liable to torture. Anything you want to change on abortion . At this moment the laws are set and i think we have to leave it that way. So, see, susan, mike pence makes no bones about it. Its wrong and hes going to work to change the law. Donald trump is kind of all over the place, right . We dont really know what hell do about the issue of abortion if he becomes president of the United States. How will mike pence tow the line tonight, do you think . Reporter this is not the only issue on releasing their taxes, mike pence did. On the transpacific partnership, mike pence supported it. Its one of the hallmarks of Trumps Campaign to oppose it. So there are a series of issues on which these two men have differed. Mike pence, with all due respect, two highly respected officials debating tonight. This debate is not about them. This debate is about donald trump. This debate is going to be about tim kaine attacking donald trump at a point hes had a rough week and mike pence trying to defend him and get this campaign back on track. Thats what he could hope to do. Weve gotten donald trump on the run on a series of issues, including his taxes. Can pence kind of right the ship as we head into that second president ial debate . So once these candidates get past all the niceties and maybe talk about some of their like, you know, pet issues, do you think that it will devolve into nastiness, mark . You know, interesting, mike pence is had a treaty where he decried negative campaigns. Errol said they have a political life in front of them. Mike pence maybe more so tonight has a lot on the line because often times he has to go out there and defend donald trump over and over and over again on issues that he doesnt necessarily agree with. I dont think things will get nasty tonight. I think what well see is mike pence try to turn it back to tim kaine tonight. By doing so and deflecting will allow him to get it away from donald trump. We know what tim kaine is going to do. But, errol, donald trump has had this terrible week, right, with the alesha machado thing, with being accused of being a misogynist and racist. You would think tim kaine would bring that up and mike pence would spend the night on the defensive . Im not sure tim kaine is going to bring those things up. I dont know that it helps the democratic ticket to get too nasty. Theres a sunny optimism that the ticket has claimed it was going to pivot to and that is very much tim kaines style. It has been throughout his career. I dont know that hes going to be looking to go overboard with a lot of that stuff although i think youll see some very targeted remarks that are intended to get specific groups of voters in specific battleground states. So youll hear, i think, some things about sexism because theyre looking to get more educated women voters on their side. I think youll hear some things where just to make sure the millennials know that theres a difference between the candidates and parties when it comes to, say, global warming, but other than that, i dont think its going to be anywhere near as in your face nasty as we saw between the two main candidates just a week ago. Susan, what do you think . I think sunny optimism would be a nice change of pace this year. I dont think weve seen much sunny optimism. I guess i dont have really high hopes that this is going to be a night of sunny optimism or a night where we suddenly talk about the big issues facing the country. I do think this debate is important. One of these men could end up being president of the United States, certainly in a position to be one step away from the president of the United States. Its important that americans have a little bit more of a sense about them than they do at the moment. All right. I have to leave it there. Errol lewis, susan paige, mark preston, thanks for being with me. Pence and kaine meet face to face. Who will win the night . Our coverage starts today at 4 00 p. M. Eastern. Still to come in the newsroom, brilliance in the eye of the beholder . Trump says hes smart for avoiding taxes, clinton begs to differ but what do voters think . An Opening Night on broadway is kind of magic. 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Were live from Longwood University where tonight tim kaine and mike pence will face off in the very first and only Vice President ial debate. We will be watching what they have to say about the New York Times report, that donald trump may have avoided paying federal income taxes for nearly two decades, but the man the candidates are trying to replace, Vice President joe biden is already weighing in saying trump is all about trump. Heres what he told Cnns Chris Cuomo in an exclusive interview. I thought it was about making sure you did your part for your country. I grew up in a house where my father used to say and never made any real money. Theyd say, im paying this or that in tax money. Dad would say, its a small price to pay. Since when does somebody living in a pept house overlooking the world be in a position to not feel any obligation at all to pay any federal income tax to support the military, to support education, to support our Foreign Policy . Since when is that a patriotic thing to do . Can you imagine any other president , any other president to ever say that and be proud of that . I cant fathom it. He says the law is w