Biden ridicules Trump for paying $750 in taxes with scathing attack ad
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign latched onto a new bombshell report that said President Donald Trump only paid $750 in taxes the year he assumed the Oval Office, releasing a scathing new ad comparing his tax burden to that of the average American voter.
Whereas the president paid $750 in taxes in recent years, and none at all for the majority of the 18 years of tax records the New York Times studied for its report published on Sunday, ordinary Americans pay thousands of dollars in taxes annually — a point the Biden campaign made crystal clear in its latest ad.
The short, 30-second video begins with a soft piano playing in the background and close-up shots of a diverse set of faces.
As each new face is shown, the advertisement reveals the typical income tax paid by common jobs across the country, from teachers and firefighters to registered nurses.
The typical income tax paid by an elementary school teacher each year is $7,239, according to 2019 tax data included in the former vice president’s latest ad. The video noted that the figure excluded special education teachers.
Firefighters typically pay over $5,000, the ad said, while construction managers saw an average income tax last year of $16,447. Registered nurses spent over $10,000 in taxes, the ad said.
These figures stood in a stark contrast when compared to the president’s shocking tax figures: the ad ends with a video clip of Mr Trump descending from Air Force One, with the words reading: “Federal income taxes paid: Donald Trump. $750.”
Mr Trump has meanwhile described the explosive report as “totally fake news” during a White House press conference on Sunday scheduled just as the New York Times was breaking the story about the president’s taxes.
The Trump Organization has also denied the report, which said Mr Trump used a jaw-dropping $72.9 million federal tax refund to secure the vast majority of the 95 million he paid in taxes over the 18 years reviewed by the newspaper. The president also received more than $21 million in state and local refunds, according to the report.
Mr Trump also faces significant debt amounting to $421 million, the New York Times reported, most of which will become due over the next four years.
The report also comes just ahead of the first presidential debate between Mr Trump and My Biden, set for Tuesday night at the Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio, which will be moderated by Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace.
Read more
The most expensive election in history? How 2020 became the year of 'fundraising on steroids'
