Joe Biden released his 2019 tax returns on Tuesday hours before the first presidential debate, in an attempt to bring attention to the fact that Donald Trump has paid very little in federal income tax over the past two decades.
As the candidates prepared to debate in Cleveland, Ohio, Mr Biden revealed that he and his wife paid almost $300,000 of federal taxes in 2019. Kamala Harris, his running mate, also released her returns, which showed that she and her husband had paid more than $1.1m in tax for the same year.
Mr Trump is facing intense scrutiny over the revelation that he paid $750 in federal tax in the year he won election and the same amount in his first year in office. The New York Times, which obtained his returns, reported that he had paid no federal income tax in 11 of the 18 years they had examined.
Chris Wallace, the Fox News anchor who will moderate the debate, is expected to ask Mr Trump about his refusal to release his tax returns, breaking a tradition that stretches back to Richard Nixon.
In a debate with Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival in 2016, Mr Trump quipped that he was “smart” after she suggested that he was refusing to release his returns because it would show that he did not pay taxes.
The first of three presidential debates comes with just five weeks to go until the election. Mr Biden leads Mr Trump by almost 7 points in the national polls, according to a Financial Times analysis of the RealClearPolitics average. Mr Biden also leads in every swing state, except Iowa, where the candidates are neck and neck.
Mr Trump has a slight edge in Georgia, which has not voted for a Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992, and his lead in Texas, which has not voted for the Democratic candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976, is just under four points.
The debate topics are expected to include the coronavirus pandemic, the vacancy on the Supreme Court following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the economy, racial justice and anti-racism protests.
Mr Wallace is also expected to ask about the integrity of the US election process. Mr Trump has been criticised for refusing to say that he would commit to a “peaceful transition of power” if he loses the election.
In the weeks leading up to the debate, Mr Trump, 74, has tried to paint his 77-year-old rival as an incoherent man who has lost his mental acuity. He has claimed, without evidence, that Mr Biden takes drugs to improve his public performances and suggested that both men take drug tests.
Mr Biden is expected to make the case that Mr Trump is incapable of handling the Covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 200,000 American lives.
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2020-09-29 20:19:00Z
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