Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said he is "excited" to go up against Vice President Biden during Thursday night's debate, pointing out his inexperience on the national debate stage.
"Joe Biden has been doing this for a long time," said Ryan on CNN in an interview that aired prior to the debate. "He ran for president twice, he's the sitting vice president, he's been on this big stage many times before, so that's new for me and I'm just doing my homework and studying the issues."
Ryan will take on Biden Thursday night during the vice presidential debate, the only match-up for the running mates ahead of Election Day. The debate takes place at 9:00 p.m. EDT at Centre College in Danville, Ky.
When pressed on whether he was "intimidated" to debate Biden, Ryan said, "no, I'm not intimidated, I'm actually excited about it."
Ryan said he has prepared for the debate through briefings and a lot of reading.
"This is new for me. Joe has done this for decades … so he clearly goes into this with a whole lot more experience than I do and I, this is the first time I'm on a stage like this," he said.
The GOP vice presidential hopeful addressed the age gap between himself and Biden, saying he was used to being the young one in the room.
"I came into Congress when I was 28 years old. I'm used to serving with people who are older, I'm used to debating people who are older," Ryan said.
Ryan told CNN that he expects the vice president to attack his Medicare proposal during the debate, saying "I look forward to it."
"I think the biggest mistake that was made to Medicare is ObamaCare. I'm excited about pointing that out and I'm more than happy to talk about the bipartisan solutions that we've offered," said Ryan.
Watch Ryan go head-to-head against Biden live at 9:00 p.m. on
HillTube.
