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CLEVELAND: Hours before his first debate with President Donald Trump, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden released his 2019 tax returns on Tuesday (Sept. 29) and his campaign asked Trump, who has been criticized for not publishing his returns. , do the same. .
Biden, who will share the stage with Trump Tuesday night in Cleveland, took the plunge two days after the New York Times reported that Trump paid only $ 750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, and none in 10 of the previous 15 years. after years of reporting large business company losses.
Trump had long sought to keep his personal financial records secret.
Biden’s taxes showed that he and his wife Jill paid more than $ 346,000 in federal taxes and other payments for 2019 on income of nearly $ 985,000 before seeking a refund of nearly $ 47,000 and said they had overpaid. to the government.
“This is a historic level of transparency intended to give the American people faith once again that their leaders will look out for them and not their own results,” Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a call with reporters. .
“Mr. President, post your tax returns or shut up,” Bedingfield added.
With more than a million Americans already casting their early votes and time is running out to change their minds or influence the small fraction of undecided voters, the stakes are huge as the two candidates for the White House take the stage five weeks before the elections on November 3.
READ: Trump’s tax disclosures spark outrage among some, but supporters stand up for the president
The 90-minute debate, with a limited in-person audience and socially estranged due to the coronavirus pandemic, will begin at 9 p.m. at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, with Chris Wallace of Fox News as moderator. It is the first of three scheduled debates.
Trump arrived in Cleveland aboard Air Force One before the debate. Biden was flying from Delaware.
Biden’s tax filing tactic before the debate shows that the former vice president is seeking political advantage on an issue that could resonate with voters: a wealthy real estate developer turned politician who, according to the New York Times report, he often avoids. pay federal income taxes.
Democrats have tried to portray Trump as a tax evader. Trump’s persistent refusal to release his taxes has been a departure from standard practice for presidential candidates.
READ: What Trump’s taxes are reported to show
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh issued a statement in response to Biden’s disclosure, accusing him of being dishonest in public statements about his own past earnings, but did not address whether Trump would release his statements.
The Times also reported that Trump was currently involved in a decade-long Internal Revenue Service audit of a $ 72.9 million tax refund he claimed after declaring large losses. If the IRS rules against you, you could have to pay more than $ 100 million, according to the newspaper.
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Biden’s return in 2019 showed that most of his income came from a company that he said handles payments for his speaking and writing commitments, and from a teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania from which he took a leave of absence without receive salary after launching your candidacy.
Also released were the 2019 tax returns for Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris.
Harris and her husband, attorney Doug Emhoff, reported paying about $ 1.2 million in total federal taxes on $ 3.3 million of income for the year, according to tax returns released Tuesday. Vice President Mike Pence released a decade of statements before the 2016 election, but there is no tax information since.
READ: After New York Times revelations, Trump says he paid millions in taxes
Fuel Trump and the more low-key Biden will debate a number of pressing political challenges, including a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 people in the United States and put millions out of work, a battle that is brewing for the nomination by the party. Trump by Conservative Judge Amy Coney. Barrett to the Supreme Court and protests for racial justice continued.
Biden, 77, has maintained a consistent lead over Trump, 74, in national opinion polls, although polls in the battlefield states that will decide the election show tighter competition.
The debate will be divided into six segments: the Trump and Biden records, the Supreme Court, the pandemic, the economy, electoral integrity, and “race and violence” in American cities.
A senior Trump campaign official told reporters aboard Air Force One that the president “knows exactly what he wants to communicate” and hopes to enter into his differences with Biden on trade, “endless wars,” the issue of “those who have and have not “from the United States. “and Biden’s long career in elected office.
Biden is sure to press his criticism of Trump’s response to the pandemic and highlight Trump’s efforts to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, the law known as Obamacare that has helped millions of Americans obtain health insurance.
