Is ‘Slow Joe’ hidin’ or Biden his time?
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has been calling him “Hidin’ Joe Biden” for months, and the Democratic candidate has been living up to this nickname ahead of Wednesday’s (AEST) crucial first presidential debate.
Mr Biden is taking increasing heat for spending so little time physically campaigning, having taken private time or called an early “lid” for nine of the past 16 days and for 12 of the past 28.
The man Mr Trump derides as “Sleepy Joe” hasn’t been seen out in public past 8pm for a week.
It’s a marked contrast to Mr Trump and, if successful, will possibly rewrite the rules of election campaigning — but it has also given plenty of ammunition to his opponent.
“I’m working my ass off,” Mr Trump said last week.
“I’m in Ohio. I’m in Texas. I’m in Florida. I’m in Michigan. I’m in Wisconsin.”
On Friday, he said losing to Mr Biden would be like “losing to a fighter that, you know, hasn’t worked out in the past six months. This guy never goes out. It’s terrible.”
“I’m gonna be very embarrassed (if) I lost to a guy that didn’t campaign.”
Mr Trump is expected to renew his attacks on Mr Biden at the first of the three presidential debates, in Cleveland, and to double down on his refusal to be drug tested.
He said on Tuesday (AEST): “Joe Biden announced he will not agree to a drug test. Gee, I wonder why?”
Mr Trump over the weekend had again challenged Mr Biden to take a drug test, saying his debate performances were “suspicious”.
His spokesperson Kate Bedingfield said the Democratic candidate “intends to deliver his debate answers in words”.
Mr Trump also defended his financial dealings after a New York Times investigation revealed a perilous level of personal debt — as well as exposing that he had paid minimal income tax.
The President claimed he had paid “many millions of dollars in taxes” and was carrying “very little debt”. “The Fake News Media, just like Election time 2016, is bringing up my Taxes & all sorts of other nonsense with illegally obtained information,” he tweeted. “I paid many millions of dollars in taxes.
“Also … I am extremely under-leveraged — I have very little debt compared to the value of assets.”
A Washington Post/ABC News opinion poll put Mr Biden 10 points ahead of Mr Trump nationally, at 53 to 43 per cent support among registered voters.