FIGHT NIGHT
1st Trump-Biden debate might be tense affair centered on high court, prez’s taxes
WILMINGTON, Del. — President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, were already set to fight when they share a stage tonight in Cleveland, but the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg means things may get tenser even faster.
Moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace, the 90-minute debate will feature segments on the Supreme Court, the coronavirus, the economy, race and policing, election integrity and the candidates’ records. Trump’s taxes will also likely be a focus after The New York Times reported that he paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for office and paid no income taxes at all in many other years.
Still, the court is expected to be the dominant topic in the debate.
“In national campaigns, we always say the court is important,” said Robert Barnett, who has advised Democratic candidates on debate prep since Jimmy Carter’s running mate, Walter Mondale, in 1976. “This time it may actually turn out to be.”
The candidates’ comments during the debate are likely to reach vast swaths of the electorate that haven’t been following the campaign closely. Biden has said Ginsburg’s seat should remain vacant until after the election, while Trump has already nominated Amy Coney Barrett.
Biden promises to name a Black woman to the court if he gets the chance but has resisted Trump’s call for him to release a list of possible Supreme Court nominees, as Trump did this year and in 2016. Biden also won’t commit to expanding the court, as some leading progressives are advocating.
He’s instead using the vacancy to focus on how the court fight could threaten the Obama administration’s signature health care law amid a pandemic — a case he’ll make again during the debate.
“They see an opportunity to overturn the Affordable Care Act on their way out the door,” Biden said of the Trump administration during a speech Sunday in Wilmington, Delaware.
Trump, for his part, is likely to brag about the two justices he’s already put on the Supreme Court and look to energize his base with the prospect of a third, which would give conservatives a 6-3 advantage.
“Most important of all, she will defend your God-given rights and freedoms,” Trump said of Barrett during a weekend rally in Pennsylvania, where the crowd chanted, “Fill that seat!”
Brett O’Donnell, who has helped five Republican presidential candidates prepare for debates and was formerly the debate coach at Liberty University, said he expects Trump to say “a lot of what he’s already been saying about the courts on the stump.”
“If you watch his debate performances, much of what happens in the debates gets tested out in his town halls,” he said.
The court will have to compete with Trump’s taxes coming to light. But sometimes major news events that seem sure to dominate debates don’t end up having the anticipated impact. In October 2016, an “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump talked in lewd terms about grabbing women by their genitals came to light just days before a debate.
Most observers saw Clinton as prevailing in the debate that followed, but the tape didn’t come to define the last weeks of the election.
Biden will step onto the Cleveland stage holding leads in the polls — significant in the national surveys, closer in battleground states.
Polls suggest fewer undecided voters remain than at this point in the 2016 campaign. And several high-profile debates in past elections that were thought to be gamechanging moments at the time ultimately had little lasting effect.
Four years ago, Democrat Hillary
Clinton was widely seen as besting Trump in their three debates, but she lost in November. In 2012, Mitt Romney crushed Barack Obama in their first meeting only to falter in the rematches.
“Historically, incumbents do less well in the first debate, largely because they’re unaccustomed to being challenged openly,” said presidential historian Jon Meacham. “The most important single debate in terms of direct impact on outcome came 40 years ago, with the single Carter-Reagan meeting a week before the election. The key question then — ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ — has fresh and compelling resonance.”
Cindy McCain will advise Biden transition team
Cindy McCain, the widow of Republican Sen. John McCain, will advise Biden’s presidential transition team as it prepares for him to take office if he wins in November, the team announced Monday.
Steel giant ArcelorMittal parted with its U.S. operations in a $1.4 billion deal with ore-mining company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the group announced Monday morning.
As a part of the deal, the Cleveland-based mining company acquired six steelmaking facilities, eight finishing facilities, two mining and pelletizing operations and three coal and coke-making operations, according to a presentation from the mining company. This includes facilities in Riverdale and Northwest Indiana.
“This transaction brings together two of the most important companies in North America,” Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, said on a conference call.
According to a press release, ClevelandCliffs acquired 100% of ArcelorMittal’s shares — one-third in cash, the rest in stock. The deal will make Cleveland-Cliffs the largest flat-rolled steel and iron ore pellet producer in North America, said Laurenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs CEO.
Earlier this year, Cleveland-Cliffs completed the acquisition of Ohio-based steelmaking company AK Steel for around $1.1 billion in stock; that deal began late last year.
“With our acquisition of ArcelorMittal USA announced this morning, ClevelandCliffs will complete the second step of this transformation into a fully integrated, highvalue steel enterprise,” Goncalves said.
Aditya Mittal, president and chief financial officer of ArcelorMittal, said the deal will save his company about $150 million in areas such as sourcing raw materials and supply chain efficiencies.
Aditya Mittal said the repositioning of ArclelorMittal’s North American operations will allow the company to focus on its other “highly competitive suite of assets,” which include its facilities in Canada, Calvert, Alabama and Mexico.
ArcelorMittal also expects about $500 million in cash proceeds from the deal to be distributed to shareholders through a buyback program that began Monday, according to the press release.
In 2018 and 2019, ArcelorMittal USA averaged $10 billion in annual revenue, compared to $2 billion for Cleveland-Cliffs.