Kaine vs Pence as it happened: Vice presidential nominees face off in first and only debate

That's a wrap for the vice presidential debate. Kaine and Pence each did what he was sent out to do: help their campaign ticket. Public opinion differs on who won, with many writing off Kaine for his constant interruptions and others calling out Pence for failing to defend Trump.

We'll be back next week as Hillary Clinton faces off with Donald Trump during the second presidential debate.

The big wrap up: Pence vows he and Trump will ... wait for it ... make America great again.

Kaine: "We have to bring people together."

"Why don't you trust women to make this decision for themselves? Why doesn't Donald Trump?"

Kaine is speaking about abortion rights.

"We support Roe v Wade, the constitutional right of American woman to make their own decision about pregnancy. We trust American women to do that," he adds.

"And we don't think that women as Donald Trump said should be punished."

Pence says neither he nor Trump favor punishing women for abortion.

Kaine: "Trump said he did."

Pence: "He's not a polished politician."

Kaine: "The gospel of Matthew says, 'From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.' So Trump meant it. And he called Mexicans rapists.

Pence: "Senator, you've whipped out that Mexican thing again."

Kaine: "Can you defend it?"

Pence: "There are criminal aliens that come into this country..."

Pence talks about encouraging a "culture of life," adding that a society can be "judged by how it deals with its most vulnerable, the elderly, the sick ... the unborn."

Like spy vs. spy, it is a battle of foundation vs. foundation.

Trump and Pence no longer have clear sailing to attack the Clinton Foundation as a tool of influence-peddling by donor for access to the former secretary of state.

Trump's Foundation has been ordered to stop collecting donations by the New York State attorney general because of questionable uses of funds and the lack of proper certification.

Kaine says the Clinton foundation provides AIDS drugs and helps Americans with opioid addictions, and that Clinton as secretary of state took no action on behalf of the foundation.

"The Trump foundation is an octopus-like foundation around the world ... whose conflicts of interests could only be known if Donald Trump releases his tax returns," says Kaine.

"The foundation was just fined for an ... illegal contribution and then they tried to hide it. The person they donated to was somebody's office who was trying to investigate Trump University. "

Pence says that the Clinton Foundation lets the Clintons travel the world but we'd know a lot more about it if Hillary Clinton would release all the emails she kept on a personal server while she was secretary of state.

Does Donald Trump not support American troops because he doesn't pay taxes?

That's what Kaine claims.

The report that Trump used a nearly billion-dollar business loss to get out of paying federal income taxes for 18 years included 2001during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Kaine said that while Clinton helped New York rebuild, Trump was fighting a different fight to save himself taxes. That means, Kaine insists, that Trump wouldn't support efforts against terrorism and wouldn't support US troops.

Pence: "Donald Trump would support our troops."

Kaine: "He doesn't pay taxes."

On Syria, Pence says the country is "a mess."

He adds: "We've got to begin to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered American leadership. It begins by rebuilding our military."

He calls for the establishment of safe zones in Syria, working with Arab partners and an American response to Russian aggression in Syria:

"The provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength," he declares.

Kaine hits back over Trump's stand on Russia.

"Donald Trump again and again has praised Vladimir Putin and it's clear that he has business connections," he says.

Talking of Trump's praise for Putin's strong leadership, Kaine notes: "If you don't know the difference between dictatorship and leadership, then you've got to go back to the fifth-grade civics classes."

Someone definitely not winning the debate tonight is moderator Elaine Quijano. Both men have talked over her — and each other — repeatedly, making many points indecipherable. "Gentlemen, please," she has pleaded. And in several cases, they both continued talking.

This is the key difference between Clinton and Trump on safety, says Kaine: Clinton wants to crack down on people who are dangerous, Trump wants to get tough with entire categories of people from Mexicans to Muslims.

Pence: "You've got to err on the side of the safety of the American people."

Kaine: "By trashing all Syrians? By trashing all Muslims?

Trump has a personal Mount Rushmore of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein.

- Senator Tim Kaine

Kaine hammers again at Trump's insult that Mexican immigrants are "rapists."

There is a "fundamental respect issue here," say Kaine. Trump has called Mexicans rapists and criminals. He's called women slobs, pigs, dogs — I'm embarrassed to say that with my mother and wife here — attacked a federal judge... said McCain wasn't a hero because he's been captured... and he perpetrated this outrageous and bigoted lie that Barack Obama isn't a citizen."

A disgusted Pence notes: "When I listened to the avalanche of insults coming out of senator Kaine ..."

"Those were Trump's insult!" snaps Kaine.

"That's small potatoes compared to Hillary Clinton calling a half of Donald Trump's supporters a basket of deplorables," says Pence.

Kaine responds that Clinton has apologized for that, but Trump hasn't said he is sorry for any of his insults against immigrants and women.

The candidates are discussing the different approaches the campaigns are taking on the topic of immigration reform. Pence reiterates Trump's plan to deport more than 11m undocumented immigrants and says it is a matter of national security and the economy. He also hits out against amnesty for immigrants and what he calls sanctuary cities.

But Kaine noted Trump's offensive comments regarding immigrants and children of immigrants, highlighting remarks against a federal judge for his Mexican ancestry and his promotion of the Obama birther movement.

Are we asking too much of police officers? Quijano asks.

Kaine boasts that when he was governor Virginia was one of the ten safest states in the US, and he attributes it to community policing and trust between communities and law enforcement officers.

"That model still works," Kaine says. Then he hits Trump for backing stop-and-frisk. "That would be a mistake because it hurts police-community relations."

He notes he is a gun owner, but has "scar tissue" from US violence, including the
2007 Virginia Tech shooting, and calls for closing loopholes in background checks.

"We can support the second amendment and do things like background record checks to make it safer."

Pence lashes "the bad-mouthing of people, who seize upon tragedy to use as a broad brush to accuse law enforcement of institutional bias."
We "ought to stop seizing on these moments of tragedy," Pence says, referring to police shootings. "Enough of this seizing on every opportunity to demean law enforcement."

Kaine shoots back that people should not be afraid to bring up the issue of bias in law enforcement.

"I'm not afraid," Pence says.

Moving on to the Social Security system, Kaine vows: "We will never, ever engage in a risky scheme to privatise social security."

Kaine notes that Pence was a "chief cheerleader for the privatization of social security" and Trump likes the idea, too.

Pence replies: "There they go again ... this is the old scare tactic."

"But you have the voting record, governor," says Kaine. "I can't believe that you won't defend your own voting record."

Kaine is coming off as assertive. Pence is talking more slowly, giving pained expressions as Kaine expounds.

It's the big question: What about the report that Trump may have used a billion-dollar business loss to get out of paying federal income tax for 18 years?

"Donald Trump is a businessman; he actually built a business," says Pence.

The returns "show that he faced some pretty tough times 20 years ago. We have a tax code that is designed to encourage entrepreneurship... he went through a very difficult time, but he used the tax code just the way it's supposed to be used," Pence says.

Kaine interrupts: "How do you know that?"

Pence says Trump created tens of thousands of jobs and a great business.

Kaine: "How do you know that?"

The candidates are clearly prepared with quick rebuttals early on in the open discussion. Kaine is quick to bring down Pence's attacks towards Clinton with details about her political career. Pence does not step down and even uses former President Bill Clinton's comment on Obamacare against the Clinton campaign.

On the subject of the economy, Pence points out he has been able to balance his state's budget and hits at President Obama's economic policies. Kaine, meanwhile, focuses a "you're hired plan" which includes job creation, raising the minimum wage, equal pay for equal work and education.

He claims that Trump's "you're fired plan" will not allow for higher minimum wage and tax breaks for the rich.

Moderator Elaine Quijano asks Kaine why voters don't trust Hillary Clinton.

Kaine says he trusts her because "Hillary Clinton has that passion" to serve others with a special focus on civil rights. "It's always been about putting others first, and that's a sharp contrast with Donald Trump. Donald Trump puts himself first."

Kaine goes on the attack, lashing Trump for calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criticises him for starting the birther movement.

Senator Tim Kaine goes in for an early shot, saying that the "thought of Donald Trump as commander-in-chief" scares him and his wife "to death." They have a son deployed overseas.

And we begin. After a coin toss, it's been decided that Kaine will be the first to answer in tonight's debate. First topic: presidential leadership.

Who are Mike Pence and Tim Kaine?

While Pence is no longer in Congress, he spent more than a decade in the House of Representatives. According to Roll Call, the Indiana governor sponsored 90 bills and resolutions, 21 of which passed one chamber. Zero of the bills or resolutions sponsored by Pence ever made became law.

On the other hand, former governor Kaine has served as Virginia junior senator since 2013. Since he has been part of the Senate, Kaine has sponsored 39 bills and resolutions, six of which passed one chamber. None of the bills or resolutions sponsored by Kaine have become law,

One thing that won't raise any eyebrows tonight is the vice presidential candidates' tax returns, which have been dubbed "extraordinarily normal" by the Washington Post.

In 2015, Senator Tim Kaine and his wife, Anne Holton, reported adjusted gross income of $311,441 (£244,651), almost all from their salaries. They donated $21,290 (£16,724) to charity, and deducted $2,896 (£2,275) in interest paid on their mortgage.

Their effective federal tax rate was 20.%, which is about average for households in that income range.

That same year, Governor Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, reported adjusted gross income of $113,026 (£88,787), most of it from Pence's governor's salary. They donated $8,923 (£7,009) to charity and reported a $3,407 (£2,676) loss from Karen Pence's business selling towel charms.

Their effective federal tax rate was 7.9%, which is a bit below average for households in that income range.

Somebody's getting excited — so excited he dropped the s-bomb. Mike Pence, a buttoned-up family-values conservative, made the slip while gushing about the breathless media coverage of Donald Trump's bizarre pre-dawn Twitter tirade against former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whom Trump had called Miss Piggy.

"Almost every day, it feels like they come up with something new, and they say, 'Now we've got him,'" Pence noted, referring to the press at a pre-debate rally in Ashland, Virginia.

"Then they turn on the television the next morning and Donald Trump is still standing stronger than ever before. This s--t really is fun to watch, I'll tell you what."

Welcome to tonight's live coverage of the first and only vice presidential debate between Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence. The running mates of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will have a chance to introduce themselves to American voters and to bring the attention back to key election issues.

A recent NBC News poll reveals that Kaine and Pence are widely unknown to American voters. Overall, 40% of voters say they do not know enough about Kaine and 33% say they do not know about Pence. Even within their own parties, the candidates have visibility issues, with 35% of Democrats saying they do not know enough about Kaine and 27% of Republicans saying the same for Pence.

To top it off, the vice presidential nominees will have the hard job of refocusing the conversation back to election issues. The first presidential debate, which was seen as a victory for Clinton, was filled with personal attacks between the two nominees. Since then, the Trump campaign has been beset with scandals, ranging from Trump's taxes to his attacks on a former Miss Universe to his apparent (clothed) involvement in a softcore porn film.