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CLEVELAND: Leader Joe Biden and an increasingly struggling Donald Trump traded blows on Tuesday (Sept. 29) hours before a first presidential debate that promised to be as nasty and unpredictable a clash as American voters have ever seen.
Before even meeting on stage in Cleveland for the first of three 90-minute live TV showdowns, Biden went public with his tax returns to capitalize on revelations that billionaire Trump avoided paying almost any federal income tax for years.
Trump’s informed mastery of loopholes to pay just $ 750 in federal taxes during the first year of his presidency has given Biden an opportunity to paint the Republican as a phony when he says he represents America’s working classes. .
By contrast, Biden’s statements show that he and his wife Jill paid a hefty sum of $ 299,346 in federal income taxes for 2019.
READ: Trump’s tax disclosures spark outrage among some, but supporters stand up for the president
As Biden points out what is likely to be a central weapon in the debate, Trump’s team leaned on his lurid narrative that the Democratic challenger is senile and needs help getting through the debate.
Trump has repeatedly demanded that Biden take a test for performance-enhancing drugs.
And on Tuesday, his campaign, which was echoed by Trump’s friend Fox News, launched into new conspiracy theory territory by loudly demanding that Biden be searched for a secret headset, presumably to give him answers in debate.
Cleveland hosts the first of three presidential debates. (Photo: AFP / Saul Loeb)
“Joe Biden’s managers agreed to a pre-debate inspection several days ago for the electronic headsets, but today they were abruptly reversed and declined,” said Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director, in a statement.
Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, called this “absurd” and responded with her own rumor spreading, claiming that Trump’s team had tried unsuccessfully to ensure that debate moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News never mention the number of deaths in the United States. of COVID-19.
“See how easy it was to try to cause a distraction?” she was quoted by Politico.
COVIDES AND TAXES
When Trump landed in Cleveland before the debate, a senior Air Force One official told reporters that he “is ready to go.”
The official said Trump was bringing as guests former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now a controversial attorney for the president, and mixed martial arts fighter Colby Covington.
The pregame garbage talk gave a glimpse of what the two courses are trying to accomplish.
Trump, a laggard in national and state polls, is considered a master at diverting and provoking outrage.
Biden arrived in Cleveland in a new field plane decorated with his name and that of his running mate Kamala Harris.
US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden arrives at Burke Lakefront Airport on September 29, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images / AFP)
He wants to keep the debate firmly fixed on Trump’s biggest responsibilities: the more than 200,000 coronavirus deaths and the fuss of tax evasion.
READ: Disney to lay off 28,000 due to COVID, New York City imposes fines for masks
The COVID-19 restrictions will give the debate a streamlined look with a smaller audience. Naturally, there will be no standard time, even if forced, a show of goodwill in a handshake.
What Americans will get, however, is a chance to finally see Trump, 74, and Biden, 77, side by side.
And Trump, who likes his skills as a verbal boxer, is expected to hit hard and low.
SILVER BULLET OF THE SUPREME COURT?
Arguably, the president has little to lose: His staunch support is already built in, and Americans are almost unable to be outraged by his convention-busting insults and well-documented torrent of outright hype or outright lies.
But he’s also going to Cleveland with what he hopes will be a silver bullet: his nomination of conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
If Barrett is quickly confirmed, as the Republican-led Senate hopes, Trump will have tipped the highest court firmly to the right for years to come.
LEE: Barrett’s election to the Trump Supreme Court meets with senators, with the aim of a quick confirmation
Democrats are crying badly at the hasty moment, but Trump hopes the power play will energize conservatives.
The president is also likely to insist on earlier claims that Biden’s son Hunter was involved in corruption in Ukraine. Last year, Trump was accused of using the power of his office to try to pressure the Ukrainian government to publicly endorse that theory.
But if Trump attacks Hunter or Biden’s other children, including his son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015, “it will backfire,” Biden’s spokesman Andrew Bates said.
Biden, as a favorite, wants to stay stable, but has a reputation for losing his cool when challenged in public. Many Americans are eager to see if the future president can withstand the heat of a Trump firestorm.
But Biden will also go after Trump personally, painting him as a spoiled playboy posing only as a white working-class friend who helped him get elected in 2016.
