Trump tries to set a middle-class tax trap for Biden
10 August 2020
President Trump is trying to lure Joe Biden into a Walter Mondale trap — attempting to force the Democratic nominee to embrace middle-class tax increases as part of his election strategy.
Why it matters: With his Saturday evening executive action to unilaterally rewrite the tax code, Trump again is demonstrating the lengths to which he’ll go to change the conversation — and try to make the election a choice between him and Biden, and not a referendum on him.
In Biden's response, he didn’t take the bait. Instead, he used the White House effort to suspend payroll taxes as a way to double down on his appeal to seniors and cast himself as the defender of Social Security.
- Biden called Trump's plan a "first shot in a new, reckless war on Social Security.”
The context: Trump's backers have tested the Mondale comparisons since May 2019, when Biden said in South Carolina, to applause: "First thing I’m gonna do is repeal this Trump tax cut."
- But Biden has been more disciplined and nuanced since. He’s also stayed in touch with Mondale over the years. And as vice president, Biden studied Mondale's papers to learn from history.
What we're watching: Biden isn't opposed to raising taxes on the wealthy — he told Wall Street donors as much in June. But he’s never said he'd raise middle-class taxes.
- Look for Trump to try and force Biden to take a more explicit position on the payroll tax suspension for those making less than $100,000.
Between the lines: Repealing tax cuts is much harder once voters get used to them.
- President Obama campaigned on scrapping the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the wealthy.
- But in 2012, he compromised and made them permanent for families making less than $450,000. That’s an expansive definition of the middle class.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.