NEW YORK TIMES LẤY CON SỐ $750 TUNG LÊN BÁO ĐỂ HẠ GỤC TRUMP - MỌI NGƯỜI ĐỌC CHI TIẾT NẦY SẼ RÕ- NHƯNG TẠI SAO TRUMP LẠI KHÔNG ĐƯA BẰNG CHỨNG CHẮC CHẮN NẦY RA TRƯỚC DƯ LUẬN ĐANG HÙA NHAU NGUYỂN RỦA ÔNG???./-TCL
NYT's Hit Piece Includes Its Own Fact Check: Trump Paid $1 Million in 2016 and $4.2 Million in 2017 to US Treasury
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By Joe Saunders
Published September 29, 2020 at 8:41am
The New York Times never lets the facts get in the way of a good story – it just buries them so far down no one will see.
Then it buries its own credibility, too.
That was the case Sunday when the most biased “news” organization in the country published
its latest in-kind donation to the Democratic Party in the form of a
nearly 10,000-word account of President Donald Trump’s income tax
history, deliberately written to cast Trump as a villain to
hard-working, taxpaying Americans.
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But one key fact buried by The Times gives the game away on how misleading the article actually was.
The so-called “newspaper of record” started out the article
with sentences apparently aimed at Everyman: It didn’t talk in billions
or millions of dollars, figures most Americans don’t deal with on a
regular basis (even Times readers).
Under the ominous headline “Long-Concealed Records Show Trump’s
Chronic Losses and Years of Tax Avoidance,” it claimed that a
billionaire who became president of the United States had “paid $750 in
federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year
in the White House, he paid another $750.”
That’s in the lede. The first sentence of a story that should set the tone for everything that follows.
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Unfortunately for the no-doubt rapidly diminishing number of
Americans who actually believe The Times can be trusted, that sentence
set a tone of bias and outright dishonesty that the article itself
admits in a disguised fact check a long 77 paragraphs later.
Trump did pay millions in taxes those years: $1 million in 2016; $4.2 million in 2017.
Do you think this New York Times story will hurt Trump politically?
“As he settled into the Oval Office, his tax bills soon returned to
form,” The Times wrote, deep, deep, deep into the story. “His potential
taxable income in 2016 and 2017 included $24.8 million in profits from
sources related to his celebrity status and $56.4 million for the loans
he did not repay. The dreaded alternative minimum tax would let his
business losses erase only some of his liability.
“Each time, he requested an extension to file his 1040; and each
time, he made the required payment to the I.R.S. for income taxes he
might owe — $1 million for 2016 and $4.2 million for 2017. But virtually
all of that liability was washed away when he eventually filed, and
most of the payments were rolled forward to cover potential taxes in
future years.”
As one social media user picked up in a BizPac Review piece on Monday put it:
To repeat: Trump “made the required payment to the I.R.S.
for income taxes he might owe,” The Times wrote, followed by the figures
$1 million for one year, $4.2 million for the second. (Emphasis in the
quote added, obviously.)
In other words, Trump did in fact pay considerably more than $750 in
taxes in 2016 and 2017 — he just didn’t actually owe what he paid.
In fact, an argument could be made that since those payments actually amounted to overpayments,
when Trump’s final liability was established at the laughably low
figure of $750, the whole incident redounds to the president’s favor.
Since the money wasn’t returned, but “rolled forward to cover potential
taxes for future years,” Trump was, in effect, giving the federal
government about $5 million until some future date.
The rest of the article amounts to a propaganda gift to the presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, typical of The Times anti-Trump machine.
It’s paragraph after biased paragraphed, stuffed with dollar signs
and financial details that make it appear there are all kinds of sordid
maneuverings going on, but probably describes the kind of totally legal
tax minimization strategies employed by the wealthiest Americans
regardless of party.
Is it any wonder that on Sunday, Trump used a White House media briefing to pan The Times piece as “totally false“?
It’s important to note that the word “illegal” is not one of the
almost-10,000 words The Times unleashed to attack the president on the
eve of the first Trump-Biden debate. (It did use the word “illegality,”
but only quoting a New York state regulator – no doubt a Democrat – and
discussing activities of the Trump Foundation, not the president’s
taxes.) Think there’s a reason for that?
It’s just as important to note that any businessman or woman in the
United States, from a mom-and-pop diner to the titans of industry, will
take every step possible to minimize their payments to the IRS.
Every year, the country’s law schools churn out countless attorneys
who specialize in the tax code because it’s an area of law that’s in
constant demand – particularly among the uber-wealthy, like Trump, who
employ legions of accounting and legal minds to make sure their taxes
are as low as possible.
The final bill, as The Times’ own story demonstrates, is up to the
IRS, the individual and the lawyers and accountants involved — it’s not
The New York Times editorial board or the empty-headed firebrands at
MSNBC who get to determine how much Donald Trump owes in taxes.
The IRS doesn’t consult journalists to decide how much New York Times
Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. must pay in taxes, or Washington
Post owner Jeff Bezos needs to kick in to Uncle Sam.
But journalists do get to decide how to frame a story, and that
decision is a matter of the public trust – one journalists should have
the personal and professional integrity to honor.
When a news outlet like The Times chooses to use a mammoth “news”
story to attack the president of the United States in the weeks before
an election, and it uses a barely credible distortion of reality in the
opening sentences of its piece, then forces the reader to wade through
reams innuendo to get to the actual fact, it violates that trust.
It’s nothing new to the biased Times,
of course – the paper has been on a vendetta against Trump since he
first came down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce for the
presidency in 2015.
But it’s as damning as ever to the state of journalism as practiced in the 21st century.
The biased mainstream media has buried the facts about Trump and his
presidency for so long, they’ve buried their own credibility long since.
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
2020 Presidential Debate Live Updates: Trump and Biden
Spar in Chaotic Debate
The first
presidential debate between Joseph R. Biden Jr. and President Trump is underway
in Cleveland, and being moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News.President Trump,
heckling and taunting, tried to tear down Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday night.
“China ate your lunch, Joe,” he said at one point. When Mr. Trump
tried to bring up the issue of Mr. Biden’s troubled younger son, the Democratic
nominee did what he showed up to do: Try to stand above the fray and appeal
directly to undecided voters exhausted by the past four years.
“His family, we can talk about all night,” Mr. Biden
said. “This is not about family. It’s about your family.”
Coming into the debate, the candidate onstage who
needed a reset was Mr. Trump, not Mr. Biden, who simply needed to hold onto his
polling lead and offer up a counter model to voters.
Mr. Trump, heckling and interrupting throughout the
debate, appeared aggressive and assertive, at one point challenging Mr. Biden
to name law enforcement groups that had endorsed his campaign. The president
also claimed that antifa would overthrow Mr. Biden.
“It’s hard to get a word in with this clown,” Mr.
Biden said. The president’s performance is likely to please members of his
base, who saw the entertaining, loudmouth fighter onstage whom they come out to
see at rallies in the middle of a pandemic. But it was not clear that he had
changed the tenor of the campaign, or made any sort of appeal to voters who are
still persuadable.
Mr. Biden also didn’t appear overly rattled, and
took opportunities to point out that the country has become “weaker, sicker”
and “more divided” under Mr. Trump’s leadership.
“You shut up, man,” Mr. Biden said at one point,
channeling, perhaps, the voice of a tired nation that has been tuned into the
Trump show daily for four years. At another point, Mr. Biden called his
opponent racist and “Putin’s puppy.”
But he managed to look interested in issues, rather
than a slapfest. “I’d like to talk about climate change,” the moderator, Chris
Wallace, said, cutting off a discussion about Hunter Biden.
Joseph R. Biden Jr. and President Trump tussled
over an issue that has roiled the country in recent months: race.
“Why should voters trust you rather than your
opponent to deal with the race issues facing this country over the next four
years?” Chris Wallace, the moderator, asked both men.
It was an issue that played straight into the hands
of Mr. Biden, who enjoys a significant lead over Mr. Trump among Black voters: A recent poll from The New York Times and Siena
College showed that Mr. Biden led Mr. Trump among Black voters, 81 percent to 7
percent. And the Democratic Party is the political home for most Black
Americans.
Mr. Biden tried to press his advantage, citing the
white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 after which Mr. Trump
said there had been “very fine people on both sides.”
“This man is a savior of African-Americans?” Mr.
Biden asked, with mock incredulity.
Mr. Trump, for his part, immediately cited the 1994
crime bill, which created a range of new federal offenses and expanded the use
of the death penalty, and was a point of vulnerability for the longtime
Delaware senator throughout the primaries.
“They saw what you did,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump has tried to chip away at Mr. Biden’s
support, hoping that even a few percentage points could tip the election. At
the Republican National Convention last month, Mr. Trump’s party stretched hard
to find African-Americans who would testify that the president was not a
racist, in what represented an extraordinary effort to recast his record on
issues of race.
Mr. Trump and Republicans have also seized on remarks
Mr. Biden made in May, when he told a radio host that Black voters torn
between voting for him and Mr. Trump “ain’t Black.” The comment, which Mr.
Biden has apologized for, set off a firestorm online among liberal activists
and conservatives alike. His words also threatened to reopen wounds from 2016,
when many leaders felt Democrats had taken Black
voters for granted.
Mr. Biden at the time swiftly tried to remedy his
remarks.
“No one, no one, should have to vote for any party
based on their race, their religion, their background,” he said. “There are
African-Americans who think that Trump was worth voting for. I don’t think so,
I’m prepared to put my record against his. That was the bottom line and it was,
it was really unfortunate.A brief exchange between President Trump and Joseph
R. Biden Jr. on coronavirus lockdowns highlighted some of the most fundamental
differences in their approaches to the pandemic.
Asked about the prospects for economic recovery
after the crash caused by the virus crisis, Mr. Biden spoke in detail — or at
least as much detail as is possible in two minutes — about the reasons it has
been difficult for schools and small businesses to reopen. It is expensive to
reopen schools, he noted, and the Trump administration has not provided masks
for teachers and students.
“He is insisting that we go forward and open when
you have almost half the states in America with a significant increase in Covid
deaths and Covid cases,” Mr. Biden said. “You can’t fix the economy until you
fix the Covid crisis.”
Mr. Trump deflected blame for the virus, referring
to it as the “China plague”; claimed that Democrats were opposed to reopening
cities quickly for political reasons; and boasted: “I’m the one that brought
back football. I brought back Big Ten football.” He did not describe measures
that would make it easier to reopen the economy, but rather asserted broadly
that it should have been done already.
Even as coronavirus cases spike once more, Mr.
Trump has insisted that states can reopen, children can go to school,
worshipers can go to church and he can hold rallies — but he has simultaneously
sought to delegitimize the very measures, like consistent wearing of face
masks, that experts say are most likely to make those activities safe.
Despite his best efforts to talk up his
administration’s response to the virus crisis — and his efforts to change the
subject — Mr. Trump has not been able to convince voters that his response was
adequate, according to polls. A recent ABC News poll showed that 58 percent of
voters disapproved of the president’s performance on the pandemic.Fact-Checking
the First 2020 Presidential Debate
A team of New York Times reporters are
fact-checking President Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.,
providing context and explanation.A woman wore a President Trump-themed mask at
a debate watch party in Lititz, Pa. The president has helped make the wearing
of face masks the latest front of a culture war.
Credit...Mark Makela for The New York Times
Joseph R. Biden Jr. was given an opportunity to lay
out how President Trump has botched the country’s response to the coronavirus
crisis, the key topic for the Democratic nominee and the subject where the
president is most vulnerable.
“He said, ‘It is what it is,’” Mr. Biden said,
referring to the president’s reaction to the grim milestone earlier this year
that 100,000
people in the United States had been killed by the virus (the death toll is
now over
200,000). “It is what it is, because you are who you are,” Mr. Biden said.
He said the president did not ask President Xi Jinping of China to have people
on the ground go to Wuhan to see how dangerous it was.
“We should be providing all the protective gear
possible,” Mr. Biden said. “The money the House has passed in order to be able
to go out and get people the help they need to keep their businesses open.”
He added, “You should get out of your bunker and
get out of the sand trap and your golf course and go in your Oval Office and
bring together the Democrats and Republicans and fund what needs to be done now
to save lives.”
Mr. Biden said voters should not trust the
president on his promises of a vaccine within weeks. “He puts pressure and
disagrees with his own scientists,” Mr. Biden said. He challenged voters that
it was hard to believe him “in light of all the lies he’s told you about the
whole issue relating to Covid.”
Mr. Trump defended his administration’s response,
claiming that many Democratic governors had said he did a phenomenal job. Some
Democratic governors over the spring walked a careful line because they did not
want to risk alienating Mr. Trump and jeopardizing their ability to received
desperately needed federal resources. But many Democratic governors criticized
him. Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, for instance, said the federal
government had “not lived up to its expectations” when it came to making
coronavirus tests available.
“We got the gowns, we got the masks, we made the
ventilators,” Mr. Trump said, claiming Mr. Biden would have failed to do so.
Mr. Trump said that his comment suggesting that
ingesting disinfectant could help combat the virus was “said sarcastically, you
know that.”
No issue has threatened Mr. Trump’s re-election
more than a health crisis he has been unable to talk his way out of — one that
has hurt him with older adults who are anxious for their lives, and complicated
his attempts to appeal to more Black voters, who have been disproportionately
affected by the virus.
The president, frustrated that the economic gains
he had claimed credit for and had expected to help him win re-election were
wiped away, has deliberately tried to play down the seriousness of the virus,
hoping it would simply disappear. In January, Mr. Trump dismissed it as “one person coming in from China,” even though he
knew it was far more deadly than the common flu he compared it to in public. He
has claimed falsely that the United States had “among the lowest case fatality
rates of any major country anywhere in the world.” In fact, it ranks in the top third around the world.
He has repeatedly claimed that his travel
measures slowed the virus’s spread in the United States and that countless more
lives would have been lost if he had not acted as he did, even though the
travel measure did not ban travel from China and 40,000
people traveled to the United States from China from the end of January to
April.
Even as coronavirus cases spike across parts of the
country, Mr. Trump has insisted that states could reopen, children should go to
school, people should be allowed to worship at church and that he should be
able to hold campaign rallies. He has helped make the wearing of face masks,
which his own experts say are the most important measure to stop the spread and
keep Americans safe, the latest front of the culture war, rather than a measure
embraced by all.
Despite his best efforts to talk up his
administration’s response to the virus crisis — and his efforts to change the
subject, completely — Mr. Trump has not been able to convince voters that his
response was adequate, according to polls. A recent ABC News poll showed that
58 percent of voters disapproved of the president’s performance on the
pandemic.In the presidential debate, Joseph R. Biden Jr. asked President Trump
about his tax returns after a recent report revealed that he had paid only $750
in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017.CreditCredit...Ruth Fremson/The New
York Times
Pressed by the moderator, Chris Wallace, about how
much he paid in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, President Trump falsely
said he paid “millions of dollars” in each year — and promised “you’ll get to
see it.”
Of course, Mr. Trump, the only recent presidential
candidate who has declined to publicly release his tax returns, paid $750 in
federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 — and has leveraged his enormous losses
as a businessman to garner questionable tax breaks and refunds, a major
New York Times investigation published on Sunday found.
Mr. Trump, dating to his 2016 presidential
campaign, has repeatedly pledged to release his tax returns and never has done
so. During Tuesday’s debate he argued that tax avoidance schemes he utilized
reveal his intelligence and were a product of tax laws written by the Obama
administration.
“Chris, let me tell you something, I don’t want to
pay tax,” Mr. Trump said. “Like every other private business person, unless
they’re stupid, they go through the laws.”
“Show us your tax returns,” Joseph R. Biden Jr.
interjected at one point.
“You’ll see it as soon as it’s finished,” said Mr.
Trump, who has repeatedly made that promise — without disclosing his returns —
since he entered the presidential campaign in 2015.
Mr. Trump paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the
previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he
made. He owes more than $400 million in debt due over the next several years
and is still mired in a decade-long audit dispute with the Internal Revenue
Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed.
As a private citizen, Mr. Trump has long sought to
shield from the public the true nature of his finances, and made claims about
his wealth that were either impossible to verify or later found to be gross
overestimates.
Mr. Biden pledged to eliminate the 2017 tax law Mr.
Trump signed that delivered steep tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.
“He says he’s smart because he can take advantage
of the tax code,” Mr. Biden said. “I’m going to eliminate the Trump taxes and
we’re going to invest in the people who need help.”
Mr. Trump once again sought to interrupt Mr. Biden.
‘They Will Have the Vaccine Very Soon,’ Trump Says
President
Trump claimed that a vaccine for the coronavirus would be available to the
public soon, while Joseph R. Biden Jr. expressed concern over the safety of any
rapidly approved vaccine.
She said the public health
service quote will be muzzled. We’ll get a price. Well, that’s what he’s going
to try to do. But there’s millions of signs. There’s thousands of scientists
out there like here at this great hospital that don’t work for him. Their job.
Don’t depend on him. That’s not they’re the people there. And by the way, to
the scientists that are in charge either way, they will have the vaccine very
says letting you believe for a moment what he’s telling you in light of all the
lies he’s told you about the whole issue relating to COVID. He still hasn’t
even acknowledged that he knew this was happening, knew how dangerous is going
to be. Back in February. And he didn’t even.
President Trump claimed that a vaccine for the coronavirus
would be available to the public soon, while Joseph R. Biden Jr. expressed
concern over the safety of any rapidly approved vaccine.CreditCredit...Mark
Makela for The New York Times
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has made
one thing clear in Tuesday’s presidential debate: Don’t trust President Trump.
While Mr. Trump repeatedly spoke over Mr. Biden and
over the moderator, Chris Wallace, Mr. Biden spoke directly to the camera,
addressing viewers watching at home and sharing what public polling shows is a
large distrust of the president.
On the search for a coronavirus vaccine, Mr. Biden,
speaking directly to the camera, said: “We’re for a vaccine, but I don’t trust
him at all, nor do you, I know you don’t. You trust scientists.”
Mr. Biden also reminded the audience that Mr. Trump
had repeatedly prognosticated that the coronavirus would disappear on its own.
“This is the same man that told you by Easter this
would be gone away,” Mr. Biden said. “By the warm weather it would be gone,
like a miracle. And maybe you could inject bleach in your arm, and that would
take care of it.”
Mr. Trump interjected, arguing that his infamous
bleach remark had been “sarcastic.”
The debate turned to the topic of how President
Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. are campaigning during the pandemic, as the two
men continue to take starkly different approaches to holding events during the
coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Trump has resumed large, crowded rallies,
sometimes indoors, while Mr. Biden continues to hold small, socially distanced
events that adhere to public health guidelines.
Mr. Trump suggested Mr. Biden’s approach was
because “nobody will show up.” By contrast, the president boasted, “We have
tremendous crowds.”
The president also claimed that “We’ve had no
negative effect” from holding rallies. But that is not necessarily true. A
surge in coronavirus cases in and around Tulsa, Okla., after Mr. Trump held a
rally there in June, for instance, was probably connected to Mr. Trump’s rally,
the
city’s top health official said in early July. Herman Cain, the chief
executive of a pizza chain and a former presidential candidate, was
diagnosed with the coronavirus shortly after attending Mr. Trump’s Tulsa rally
and later died from Covid-19, though it was not clear where he had contracted
the virus.
Mr. Biden’s guarded strategy reflects his
campaign’s gamble that voters will reward a sober, responsible approach to the
coronavirus crisis that mirrors the way it has upended their own lives.
In a fiery exchange during the presidential debate, Joseph
R. Biden Jr. called President Trump a liar when the discussion turned to health
care.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Trump has one political gear — attack —
and on Tuesday he lambasted his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., and
the debate moderator Chris Wallace in an attempt to draw both into a brawl,
both to divert attention from his shortcomings and to deny Mr. Biden the
opportunity to appear presidential.
The president — an incumbent who runs with the
alacrity of a challenger — repeatedly interrupted Mr. Biden, especially when
the discussion turned to his attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a
key vulnerability especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
At times, he appeared less like a participant than
a heckler, diverting and interrupting both Mr. Wallace and Mr. Biden from
asking and answering questions — and accusing both of being in cahoots.
“Here’s the deal, the fact is, that everything he’s
saying so far is simply a lie. I’m not here to call out his lies, everybody
knows he’s a liar,” Mr. Biden said.
“You graduated last in your class, not first in
your class,” Mr. Trump interjected.
“Mr. President, can you let him finish, sir,” Mr.
Wallace said.
But Mr. Trump kept interrupting him and eventually
Mr. Wallace began chiding both men for not following the debate’s rules.
“Will he just shush for a minute,” said Mr. Biden,
who was successful — at the start of the debate, at least — in not letting the
president get under his skin.
Then, after being swept away on a torrent of Trump
talk, Mr. Biden said, “Folks, do you have any idea what this clown’s doing?”
Mr. Trump repeatedly spoke over Mr. Wallace as he
tried valiantly to ask why Mr. Trump hadn’t produced the health care plan he
promised, then continued to interrupt Mr. Biden as he sought to answer
questions.
Mr. Trump’s tactics serve to make him the story of
the debate — a character trait that has run throughout his tenure as president
and, during the past six months, the general election of the presidential
campaign.
Even when Mr. Biden faced questions from Mr.
Wallace that would have put him on the defensive, Mr. Trump couldn’t resist
jumping in to offer his own commentary to slam Mr. Biden.
“He doesn’t want to answer the question,” Mr. Trump
shouted as Mr. Biden sought to respond to a question about whether he would add
justices to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Biden shot back: “Would you shut up, man?”Trump
accuses the Democratic Party of embracing ‘socialist medicine.’ Biden responds:
‘I am the Democratic Party.’‘My Party Is Me,’ Biden Says When Questioned on
Health Care
Joseph
R. Biden Jr. said that he, not others in the Democratic Party, represented the
Democrats’ stance on health care.
“What I have proposed is that we
expand Obamacare. And we increase it; we do not wipe any — and one of the big
debates we had with 23 of my colleagues trying to win the nomination that I won
were saying that Biden wanted to allow people to have private insurance still.
They can, they do, they will, under my proposal.” “That’s not what you’ve said,
and it’s not what your party has said.” “That is simply a lie.” “Your party
doesn’t say it — your party wants to go socialist medicine.” “My party is me.
Right now, I am the Democratic Party.” “And they’re going to dominate you, Joe,
you know that.” “I am the Democratic Party right now. The platform of the
Democratic Party —” “Not according to Harris.” “— is what I, in fact,
approved of.”
Joseph R. Biden Jr. said that he, not others in the
Democratic Party, represented the Democrats’ stance on health care.CreditCredit...Ruth
Fremson/The New York Times
Almost as soon as the debate began, the topic
shifted to health care — signaling just how pivotal both parties feel the issue
is in the presidential election.
Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee,
followed the strategy he has been telegraphing since the death of Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg, using the opening issue — the Supreme Court — to talk about
health care. Addressing the stakes of the Supreme Court battle, Mr. Biden said
Mr. Trump wanted to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a point he has hit
repeatedly in the last week.
“What’s at stake here is the president has made it
clear he wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act,” Mr. Biden said.
“Your party wants to go socialist medicine,” Mr.
Trump shot back, an apparent reference to the “Medicare for all” style health
care plan supported by some Democrats, including Senator Bernie Sanders of
Vermont.
Mr. Biden swiftly rebutted Mr. Trump’s
characterization. “The party is me,” he said. “Right now, I am the Democratic
Party.”
Mr. Biden and his advisers have tried to bring the
conversation back to health care at nearly every turn, mindful that the
strategy worked for the Democratic Party in the 2018 midterm elections.
Unlike some of his Democratic rivals, Mr. Biden
does not support Medicare for all, a government-run health insurance system
under which private insurance would be eliminated.
Instead, he wants to expand the Affordable Care Act
— the health care law that was enacted when he was vice president — by offering
a public option that would allow anyone to sign up for a government-run health
plan.
His proposal would also lower the maximum
percentage of income people could spend on premiums and enable more people to
get subsidies to help pay for their health insurance.
At
the first presidential debate, Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. offered
conflicting views on how the Supreme Court vacancy should be filled.
“I will tell you very simply, we
won the election. Elections have consequences. We have the Senate, we have the
White House, and we have a phenomenal nominee respected by all — top, top,
academic. Good in every way, good In every way. In fact, some of her biggest
endorsers are very liberal people from Notre Dame and other places. So I think
she’s going to be fantastic. We have plenty of time, even if we did it after
the election itself. I have a lot of time after the election, as you know. So I
think that she will be outstanding. She’s going to be as good as anybody that
has served on that court.” “We should wait and see what the outcome of this
election is because that’s the only way the American people get to express
their view is by who they elect as president and who they elect as vice
president. Now what’s at stake here. The president’s made it clear he wants to
get rid of the Affordable Care Act. He’s been running on that. He ran on that.
And he’s been governing on that. He’s in the Supreme Court right now trying to
get rid of the Affordable Care Act, which will strip 20 million people from
having insurance, health insurance. Now if it goes into court and the justice.
And I have nothing. I’m not opposed to the justices but she seems like a very
fine person. But she’s written before she went in the bench, which was her
right that she thinks that the Affordable Care Act is not concern.
At the first presidential debate, Donald J. Trump and
Joseph R. Biden Jr. offered conflicting views on how the Supreme Court vacancy
should be filled.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Trump on Tuesday mounted a simple defense
of his right to confirm a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before
the Nov. 3 vote: “Elections have consequences,” he said.
“I will tell you very simply, we won the election,”
Mr. Trump said at the first general election debate. “Elections have
consequences. We have the Senate.”
In other words, he will do it because he can.
In the past, he has not addressed the hypocrisy on
the part of Republicans, who refused to even consider President Barack Obama’s
nominee after Justice
Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, citing the coming election.
Mr. Trump claimed Tuesday night that Democrats
would do what he is doing, if they had been able to do so.
“They had Merrick Garland but the problem is, they
didn’t have the election, and they were stopped,” he said.
Mr. Biden, in his first comments on Tuesday about
Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination, argued that Mr. Trump was simply trying
to push through his nominee because “what’s at stake here is the president has
made it clear he wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.”
Mr. Biden said Judge Barrett seemed like a “very
fine person,” being careful to avoid any criticisms of her Catholic faith that
might give Republicans a new line of attack. But he said it wasn’t right to
push it through before the election.
“The election has already started,” he said. “Tens
of thousands of people have already voted. The thing that should happen is, we
should wait. We should wait and see what the outcome of this election
is.President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. did not shake hands as they stepped
to their lecterns, a nod to the coronavirus.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York
Times
President Trump and former Vice President Joseph R.
Biden Jr. have begun the first general election debate of the 2020 campaign.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden did not shake hands as they
stepped to their lecterns, a nod to coronavirus restrictions, according to
Chris Wallace of Fox News, the debate moderator. The debate is planned for 90
minutes with no commercial breaks.
“How you doing, man,” Mr. Biden said, as he
extended his arms in an air hug to Mr. Trump.
Television cameras showed the first lady, Melania
Trump, Dr. Jill Biden and the extended Biden and Trump families entering the
debate hall at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Mr. Wallace reminded the audience that the
Cleveland Clinic has designed health and safety precautions for the debate and
welcomed the candidates to the stage. Then he began the debate with the first
subject: The Supreme Court.
It edged out the last episode of “Seinfeld,” but
fell short of recent Super Bowls and the “M.A.S.H.” finale.
Still, the opening bout in September 2016 between
Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton notched
the biggest audience for a presidential debate since televised debates
began in 1960. Roughly 84 million viewers tuned in live, and that was not
counting online, mobile and C-SPAN viewers.
Network executives are expecting a giant audience
for tonight’s meeting between Mr. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr., in part
because it’s the first time the two candidates will meet face-to-face. But a
record may not be in the cards. Nielsen ratings, which measure live TV viewers,
are likely to dip from four years ago because so many Americans now watch
events on the internet or via streaming services.
Before 2016, the previous record-holder for a
presidential debate was the sole 1980 matchup of Jimmy Carter and Ronald
Reagan, which drew 80.6 million viewers.
Mr. Trump is a proven TV draw: his three meetings
with Mrs. Clinton in 2016 had a higher average viewership (74 million) than the
debates in 2012 (64 million) and 2008 (57.4 million). In an age where the
highest-rated shows on TV barely break the 10-million-viewer mark, presidential
debates remain one of the last genuine mass-media events.
Many rules have changed during
the pandemic, making it harder to figure out how to cast your ballot. This
interactive guide can help you ensure your vote is counted.
Cựu
Phó Tổng thống Mỹ Joe Biden và con trai quá cố Beau Biden (trái) cùng
Hunter Biden (phải) tại Washington ngày 20.1.2009. Photo Courtesy:
Reuters
Con trai của cựu phó Tổng thống Mỹ Joe Biden khẳng định anh đang
có mối quan hệ tình cảm với chị dâu, vợ cũ của người anh quá cố.
Trang Page Six của tờ New York Post ngày 1.3 đưa
tin Hunter Biden, con trai của cựu phó tổng thống Mỹ, khẳng định anh và
chị dâu Hallie Biden, vợ của anh trai quá cố của anh là Beau Biden, đang
hẹn hò.
Ông Beau Biden, cựu tổng chưởng lý của bang Delaware, qua đời vì ung
thư não vào tháng 5.2015. Hunter cũng đã từng có ba người con với người
vợ Kathleen nhưng cặp đôi này sau đó đã đường ai nấy đi.
Luật
sư Hunter Biden (áo xanh) đứng bên cạnh chị dâu Hallie Biden cùng bố mẹ
chồng, ông Joe Biden và phu nhân, tại đám tang Beau Biden hồi tháng
5.2015. Photo Courtesy: AP
Hunter Biden, một luật sư, nói với Page Six rằng: “Hallie và
tôi vô cùng may mắn khi tìm được tình yêu và sự ủng hộ lẫn nhau trong
thời gian khó khăn như thế này. Và thời gian này mọi người cũng yêu mến
chúng tôi rất nhiều. Chúng tôi rất may mắn khi có được gia đình và những
người bạn ủng hộ chúng tôi trong từng bước đi”.
Cựu phó Tổng thống Mỹ Joe Biden cho biết thêm ông và người vợ Dr.
Jill Biden đã luôn chúc phúc cho mối quan hệ “em chồng, chị dâu” này,
theoPage Six.
“Tất cả chúng tôi đều là người may mắn. Hunter và Hallie cuối cùng
cũng tìm thấy được tình yêu sau nhiều chuyện đau buồn. Vợ tôi hết lòng
ủng hộ mối quan hệ này, chúng tôi rất hạnh phúc”.
Reuters dẫn tuyên bố của Nhà
Trắng nêu rõ: “Toàn thể gia đình nhà Biden rất đau buồn trước thông tin
này. Chúng tôi hiểu rằng linh hồn của Beau sẽ sống mãi với chúng tôi,
qua người vợ đầy can đảm của ông ấy là Hallie và hai người con Natalie
và Hunter”.
Ông Beau Biden (Ảnh AFP)
Hunter Biden nhận tiền triệu từ Nga và Trung cộng
Thượng Viện Mỹ Công Bố Hồ Sơ Con Trai Phó Tổng Thống Biden Nhận Tiền Triệu Từ Nga và Trung cộng
Bạn thân mến,
Trong
tuần lễ vừa qua, ngày 18-9-2020, cái chết nổi bật trên báo chí và
truyền thông Mỹ là bà Ruth Bader Ginsburg, quan tòa Tối Cao Pháp Viện,
thọ 87 tuổi (ung thư tụy tạng). Đảng Dân
Chủ hết lời ca ngợi bà Ruth Bader Ginsburg về tinh thần cấp tiến và
khuynh tả. Bà cũng là người không ủng hộ Tổng Thống Trump. Bà mất đi
khiến cho Tối Cao Pháp Viện khuyết một quan tòa, chỉ còn lại 8 vị, việc
biểu quyết một vấn đề rất khó có kết quả. Do đó,
theo Hiến Pháp cần có đủ 9 quan tòa và Tổng Thống Trump đã quyết định
đề cử người thay thế bà.
Đảng Dân Chủ cuống cuồng chống đối quyết định của Tổng Thống Trump, đòi
phải để cho Tân Tổng Thống bổ nhiệm. Ứng cử viên Joe Biden cho việc Tổng
Thống Trump thay thế quan tòa Tối Cao Pháp Viện trong mùa bầu cử là lạm
quyền. Joe Biden không biết rằng việc này
đã xẩy ra trong lịch sử Mỹ nhiều lần rồi!
Tổng
Thống Trump đã công bố danh tính của quan tòa được đề cử, đó là bà Amy
Coney Barrett, một tín đồ Thiên Chúa Giáo thuần thành… Báo chí thiên tả
và đảng Dân Chủ bắt đầu chiến dịch
tấn công bà Amy Barrett và tìm mọi cách để ngăn cản Tổng Thống Trump
trong việc thay thế này.
Thế nhưng, đảng Cộng Hòa đang làm chủ Thượng Viện và với sự hợp tác của
Thượng Nghị Sĩ Mitt Romney, Thượng Viện đã có đủ số phiếu cần thiết để
xác nhận người được Tổng Thống Trump đề cử vào Tối Cao Pháp Viện.. Xem
như vậy là đảng Dân Chủ sẽ thất bại trong việc
chống phá.
Một
sự kiện nổi bất thứ hai đó là hôm thứ Tư 23-9-2020, Ủy Ban Tài Chánh
Thượng Viện công bố hồ sơ dài 78 trang đầy đủ chi tiết về các thỏa thuận
kinh doanh nhận từ Nga, Ukraine và Trung
cộng hàng triệu đô-la (có tin đồn là số tiền lên đến con số hàng Tỷ
đô-la?) của con trai ứng cử viên Tổng Thống Joe Biden, trong thời gian
Joe Biden là phó Tổng Thống của Obama. Hồ sơ cho thấy Hunter Biden đã có
những liên kết chính trị với nhiều người ngoại
quốc trong lúc Biden-Cha đang làm Phó Tổng Thống Hoa Kỳ thời Obama.
Bản
tường trình sơ khởi dầy 87 trang là kết quả của nhiều tháng điều tra,
trong đó các thành viên của Ủy Ban Nội An và Tài Chánh Thượng Viện cùng
với các nhân viên văn phòng đã duyệt
xét hơn 45,000 trang tài liệu lưu trữ của chính phủ Obama và đã phỏng
vần 8 nhân chứng, hầu hết đều là giới chức chính quyền Mỹ.
“Hồ sơ của Bộ Tài Chánh mà các Chủ Tịch thu được cho thấy có dấu hiệu
của hoạt động phạm pháp liên quan đến các cuộc chuyển khoản tài chánh
trong một số người và giữa Hunter Biden, gia đình ông ta cùng các nhân
viên của Hunter Biden với người Ukraine, người
Nga và người Trung cộng. Đặc biệt, các tài liệu này cho thấy Hunter
Biden đã nhận hàng triệu đô-la từ nguồn tiền ngoại quốc như là kết quả
của những mối liên hệ kinh doanh được thành hình trong suốt giai đoạn
thân phụ ông đang làm phó Tổng Thống Hoa Kỳ và
sau đó.”
Cụ
thể, Hunter Biden đã làm việc trong Ban điều hành của Công Ty Xăng Dầu
Burisma Holdings của nước Ukraine, trong khi Joe Biden chỉ đạo những nỗ
lực của chính phủ Obama tạo lập quan
hệ tốt tại Ukraine, và số tiền $50,000/một tháng cho chức vụ ban điều
hành chỉ mới là một thành phần lợi nhuận của các cuộc đầu tư ngoại quốc,
mà con trai ông Joe Biden nhận được trong những năm của thời Obama.
Nghi vấn ở đây là con trai phó Tổng Thống Biden
không biết một tí gì về xăng dầu mà lại được hưởng số lương của ban
điều hành $50 ngàn một tháng là quá lớn, quá kỳ lạ Bạn ơi!
Theo hồ sơ mà Ủy Ban nhận được từ Bộ Tái Chánh Hoa Kỳ, thì ông Hunter
Biden còn theo đuổi những thỏa hiệp kinh doanh kết hợp với chính trị
cùng với người Nga, người Tàu và người Kazakh.
Trong
thời gian đủng đỉnh trong nghề kinh doanh “ảo” trên toàn cầu, Hunter
Biden đã “hốt vào” được hơn $4 triệu trong các “chuyển khoản tài chính
có nghi vấn” với những người ngoại quốc
liên kết chặt chẽ. Ông Hunter Biden làm đối tác với những nhà kinh
doanh Trung cộng kết nối với đảng Cộng Sản Trung cộng và Quân Đội Nhân
Dân Giải Phóng. Hunter Biden đã lấy tiền mặt từ Elena Baturina, vợ của
Yuri Luzhkov, một cựu Thị Trưởng tham nhũng của
Moscow, rồi gửi tiền tài trợ cho những người Ukraine và người Nga đang
sống tại Mỹ. Theo bản báo cáo này, những người Ukraine và Nga từng có
“liên quan đến cái dường như là một tổ chức mãi dâm Đông Âu hoặc tổ chức
buôn người”.
Tuy nhiên, chỉ có công tác mà Hunter Biden làm cho Birisma mới lọt vào
sự chú ý của các viên chức Bộ Ngoại Giao trong chính phủ Obama. Họ nói
rằng vai trò này của Hunter Biden đã tạo nên những quan ngại về “công
tác phản gián và tống tiền”.
Đến
đầu năm 2015, George Kent, Quyền Trưởng Sự Vụ tại Tòa Đại Sứ Mỹ ở Kyiv,
Ukraine đã cảnh báo với Văn Phòng Phó Tổng Thống Joe Biden rằng Hunter
Biden nắm trong Ban điều hành Burisma
đã cản trở các nỗ lực chống tham nhũng của chính phủ tại quốc gia này.
Kent viết trong một email gửi cho các đồng sự năm 2016 rằng “Vả lại, sự
hiện diện của Hunter Biden tại ban điều hành công ty xăng dầu Burisma là
rất khó xử đối với các giới chức Hoa Kỳ
trong việc thúc đẩy một chương trình chống tham nhũng tại Ukraine..”
Theo bản báo cáo, George Kent đã nói với Văn Phòng của Joe Biden rằng
[“một ai đó cần nói với Hunter Biden là ông ấy nên từ chức ban điều hành
của Burisma”, nhưng yêu cầu của George Kent chẳng được quan tâm, bởi vì
Hunter Biden vẫn làm ban điều hành Burisma
suốt nhiệm kỳ của Obama!
Ngoài
Ukraine, Hunter Biden còn làm ăn với Nga qua đối tác Devon Archer liên
kết với Heinz vào năm 2009 thành lập Tổ Hợp Đầu Tư Rosemont Seneca. Sau
đó, bung ra một số công ty xăng dầu
để nhận tài trợ từ người giầu và những khách hàng chính trị có ý muốn
trả tiền cho sự giám định về các công việc của tổ hợp và chính phủ”].
Có
lần, liên quan đến “nhiệm vụ” của Hunter Biden tại công ty Burisma, ông
ta đã nhận $3.5 triệu tiền chuyển khoản từ Elena Baturina, vợ của Yuri
Luzhkov, cựu Thị Trưởng Moscow.
Không biết rõ tại sao mà khoản tiền này được trả?
Một khách hàng như thế, là Elena Baturina, vợ của Thị Trưởng Moscow là
Yuri Luzhkov. Bà Elena Baturina trở thành người nữ triệu phú Nga đầu
tiên sau khi công ty nhựa của bà ta nhận được những hợp đồng công cộng
nhiều lợi lộc của Thành Phố do đó chồng bà là
Yuri Luzhkov làm Thị Trưởng Moscow bị cách chức vì tham nhũng năm 2010.
Số chuyển khoản $3.5 triệu được xem là một phần “thỏa hiệp tham vấn”
cho tổ hợp Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC.
Hunter
Biden làm ăn lớn với Trung cộng. Nhằm mục đích bán các dịch vụ tham vấn
vào Trung cộng, Hunter Biden và đối tác Archer lập Tổ Hợp có cơ sở tại
Boston (Mỹ) được biết như là Thornton
LLC. Tổ hợp này quảng cáo như là một “nguồn vốn trung gian xuyên biên
giới” và liệt kê một số công ty quốc doanh của Trung cộng là khách hàng.
Qua
tổ hợp Thornton LLC, Hunter Biden thiết lập những mối quan hệ kinh
doanh với một số những người Trung cộng giàu và có liên hệ với đảng Cộng
Sản Trung cộng và Quân Đội Nhân Dân Giải
Phóng.
Nhiều
thỏa thuận với người Trung cộng mà Hunter Biden đạt được đều chảy qua
Ye Jianming, sáng lập viên Công Ty Năng Lượng Trung cộng CEFC. Đây là
một công ty năng lượng đã vượt quá $33
tỷ lợi nhuận vào năm 2013.
Qua
trung gian Công ty Jianming, Hunter Biden được giới thiệu với các quan
chức cao cấp đảng Cộng Sản Trung cộng và những nhà kinh doanh này hoạt
động dưới sự phò trợ của họ.
Những tấm ảnh từ sự kiện tháng 4-2010 tại Trung cộng được Nhóm Thornton
đưa lên cho thấy Hunter Biden đứng bên cạnh Tổng Quản Trị của Tổ Hợp Đầu
Tư Trung cộng, Phó Chủ Tịch của Công ty China Life Asset Management,
Tổng Quản Trị của Ngân Hàng Tiết Kiệm Bưu Chính,
giữa những trùm kinh doanh Trung cộng khác.
Nhìn
chung, hai cha con nhà Biden đã có tội rất lớn là Biden-Cha bao che cho
Biden-Con lợi dụng chức vụ của Biden-Cha để làm ăn với Nga, nhất là với
Trung cộng, tiếp tay cho Trung cộng
gây dựng thế lực tại Mỹ. Nhiều tháng trước khi các nhà đầu tư ký các
văn kiện cam kết tài trợ, Hunter Biden đã sắp xếp cho cha mình gặp Li
một cách chớp nhoáng tại sảnh đường của một khách sạn ở Bắc Kinh, họ đã ở
lại đó sau khi bay đi Trung cộng bằng Air Force
II.
Hunter Biden đã nhận từ Trung cộng nhiều khoản tiền lớn. Một nhánh của
công ty Ye’ đã chuyển khoản cho tổ hợp luật Owasco của Biden-Con số tiền
$100.000 vào tháng Tám 2017.
Rồi
một tháng sau, vào ngày mà tổ hợp Ye loan báo là sẽ đạt $9,1 tỷ thỏa
thuận với công ty dầu của Nga Rosneft, Biden-Con đã nhận được $100.000
tín dụng với một trong những đối tác kinh
doanh của Ye. Hunter Biden và cậu của Hunter James cùng Sarah vợ của
James, tất cả ba người đều được phép dùng thẻ tín dụng này. Nhóm bốn
người này đã sống đế vương bằng tài sản tham nhũng, gây thiệt hại nghiêm
trọng cho Mỹ Quốc, tiêu xài thoải mái, mua vé
máy bay, ở khách sạn đắt tiền và ăn tại các nhà hàng sang nhất.
Công ty Ye cũng rót cho tổ hợp luật của Biden-Con $4.8 triệu vào những năm kế tiếp.
Thế là rõ ràng Hunter Biden, con trai của ứng cử viên Joe Biden đang
nhận tiền triệu của Trung cộng một cách thoải mái và đang tiếp tay cho
các công ty Trung cộng xâm nhập vào Mỹ một cách nguy hiểm.
Qua
những sự kiện hối mại quyền thế và công việc tham nhũng này, cử tri Mỹ
cần PHẢI biết rõ: vì an nguy và sự tồn vong của nước Mỹ, nhân dân Mỹ
quyết định KHÔNG bầu cho Joe Biden, kẻ
vì tư lợi, đã bán rẻ nước Mỹ và tiếp tay cho Trung cộng..
Hồ
sơ về Hunter Biden đã được Thượng Viện công bố, chắc chắn uy tín và
phẩm chất của ứng cử viên Joe Biden sẽ bị hạ xuống thê thảm Bạn thân mến
ơi! Cử tri cần sáng suốt nhận định để “chọn
mặt gửi vàng”.
Cử tri Mỹ cần đặt vấn đề với đảng Dân Chủ một cách trực tiếp: Tại sao họ
lại đề cử một người ra tranh Tổng Thống trong khi người đó đã lợi dụng
chức vụ Phó Tổng Thống thời Obama để giúp cho con trai mình nhận hàng
triệu đô-la từ những tài phiệt Nga, Trung cộng,
Ukraine và khắp thế giới?
Phải
chăng vì “ăn của chùa nghẹn họng”, nên bằng mọi cách, Joe Biden đã đứng
ra bênh vực Trung cộng về Dịch Cúm Tàu Vũ Hán và không ủng hộ lệnh cấm
du lịch từ Trung cộng đi & đến Trung
cộng của Tổng Thống Mỹ vào đầu năm 2020?
Phải chăng Joe Biden muốn Hunter Biden có thêm những thỏa hiệp nữa, để
cả dòng tộc nhà Biden có thể nhận thêm nhiều triệu đô-la nữa từ Trung
cộng phải không Bạn thân mến?
Bạn
nghĩ xem: những người làm việc nước, giữ những chức vụ tối cao của quốc
gia như gia đình cựu Tổng Thống Bill Clinton & Hillary, như gia
đình Obama & Michelle và Cha Con của Phó Joe
Biden giàu có tới mức độ nào? Chưa kể tới những chức vụ gần nửa thế kỷ
của các “đấng Dân Biểu, Nghị Sĩ Quốc Hội” nhưng lại làm loạn dân, hại
nước như bà Dianne Feinstein, bà Maxine Waters, bà Nancy Pelosi đều có
thâm niên công vụ nhiều chục năm “trị vì” trong
guồng mày chính quyền. Thì ra, đâu cần phải làm Vua Chúa mới giàu “nứt
đế đổ vách” hở Bạn? Có ai thống kê tài sản của họ Trước (Before) và Sau
(After) khi làm nghề cai trị đất nước không hở Bạn?
Cựu
Phó Tổng thống Mỹ Joe Biden và con trai quá cố Beau Biden (trái) cùng
Hunter Biden (phải) tại Washington ngày 20.1.2009. Photo Courtesy:
Reuters
