Tim Kaine Setting A Tone At Kendall Rally
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KENDALL (CBSMiami) -- Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine held a rally at Miami-Dade's Kendall campus on Sunday as the latest poll shows Clinton and Trump in a dead heat.
CBS4's Jim DeFede spoke to Clinton's running mate about Monday's anticipated debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, between two of the country's most polarizing presidential candidates ever.
A day earlier, Trump announced on Twitter that he might invite Gennifer Flowers, a woman who had an affair with Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, to the debate.
"What it said to me about Donald Trump was that, I'm viewing this as kind of, part of the entertainment industry," Kaine told DeFede at the college campus, Sunday evening. "This is deadly serious. This is deadly serious, we've got all of these challenges at home and abroad. The good thing is, America can always solve these challenges if we just let everyone around the table together, don't divide against one another. So the fact that he was doing that to me was kind of par for the course, like it's a reality tv show. No, this is not that. This is trying to be the commander-in-chief and the president of the most important nation on Earth."
Trump's campaign said the spiteful invitation was in response to the Clinton camp asking Trump critic and billionaire businessman Mark Cuban to attend. On Sunday, Trump's campaign said Flowers would not be at the debate.
Kaine said the tone Trump has set during the campaign is one to prepare for on the debate stage. His campaign will be fighting to set their own.
"Look, you have to defend yourself if somebody says something about you that's not true. You also have to draw clear distinctions between policies. But at the end of the day, what's important for us," Kaine said, "is to have a tone that's consistent with our vision."
Hofstra University is hosting the first presidential debate on September 26 at 9 p.m. est.
The school hosted presidential debates in 2008 between then-Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain and in 2012 between President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney.
