Presidential front-runner Joe Biden described the Democratic primary debates as “kind of crazy” while on stage for Tuesday night’s debate.
“Why in God’s name should someone who is clipping coupons in the stock market, make — in fact, pay a lower tax rate than someone who, in fact, is, like I said — a school teacher and a firefighter? It’s ridiculous, and they pay a lower tax,” the former vice president began.
“Secondly, the idea that we, in fact, engage in this notion that there is $1 trillion, $640 billion in tax loopholes,” he added. “You can’t justify, at minimum, $600 billion of that. We could eliminate it all. I could go into detail had I the time.”
Biden continued, “Secondly — I mean, thirdly, what we need to do is we need to go out and make it clear to the American people that we are going to — we are going to raise taxes on the wealthy. We’re going to reduce tax burdens on those who are not. And this is one of the reasons why these debates are kind of crazy. Because everybody tries to squeeze everything into every answer that is given. The fact is, everybody is right about the fact that the fourth industrial revolution is costing jobs, it is.”
In the beginning of the debate, Biden faced questions about his son’s decision to work with Burisma, a Ukrainian oil company. President Trump requested that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, for alleged corruption during a July 25 phone call that led the House to begin an impeachment inquiry last month.
On Friday, Biden groused about the expanded debate, with 12 candidates rather than the 10 the last time around. Speaking at a Los Angeles fundraiser: “The deal was, well, no more than 10 people on the stage for three hours. Well, now there’s 12. They’re supposed to, if more than 10, they’re supposed to divide it into two. At least if you had a debate with five other people you might actually get a chance to say something. But I’m going to try to be more declarative, but not argumentative.”
