SCRANTON, Pa. — President Joe Biden delivered a flurry of attacks on former President Donald Trump during a Tuesday speech in Pennsylvania about taxes and economic policy, painting his Republican rival as a puppet of plutocrats who had ignored the working class.
Visiting his hometown, Scranton, in a top battleground state that he has visited more often than any other, Biden laid out his vision for a fairer tax code, including raising rates on the wealthy and corporations and using the money to expand the economy and help working families.
But in a speech that signaled the Biden campaign’s intention to make the 2024 election a referendum on his polarizing Republican opponent, the president returned again and again to Trump. His jabs at his predecessor took aim at the former president’s wealthy upbringing, his friendships with billionaires and his 2017 tax cuts that disproportionately benefited America’s upper crust.
“Donald Trump looks at the world differently than you and me,” Biden told a crowd of more than a hundred supporters at a cultural center in Scranton. “He wakes up in the morning at Mar-a-Lago thinking about himself. How he can help his billionaire friends gain power and control, and force their extreme agenda on the rest of us.”
Aiming for a clear contrast, Biden laid out his proposals: Expanding the child tax credit. Providing a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers. Raising the minimum tax rate for billionaires and corporations.
“We know the best way to build an economy is from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down,” Biden said. “Because when you do that, the poor have a ladder up and the middle class does well and the wealthy still do very well. We all do well.”
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, disputed that Biden’s plan would benefit Americans.
“President Trump proudly passed the largest tax CUTS in history,” she said in a statement. “Joe Biden is proposing the largest tax HIKE ever.”
Throughout his speech, Biden wove in criticism of Trump — including a needling joke about the falling shares in the former president’s social media company.
“If Trump’s stock in Truth Social — his company — drops any lower, he might do better under my tax plan than his,” Biden said.
The president’s speech kicked off a three-day swing through Pennsylvania, with appearances scheduled in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Thursday. The trip came as Trump appeared in court in Manhattan for the second straight day as his first criminal trial begins — a striking split screen welcomed by the Biden campaign.
Since Biden delivered his State of the Union address last month, his campaign has shifted into general election mode, after a far quieter start to the year. In recent weeks, he has visited every major battleground state. His campaign has opened more than 100 field offices around the nation.
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