Biden pokes at Trump over hush-money trial
WASHINGTON – In a jab at Donald Trump, President Joe Biden publicly acknowledged the former president’s criminal trial in New York for the first time since it began this week.
“Under my predecessor − who’s busy right now,” Biden said while comparing his Pennsylvania jobs record to that of Trump during a speech Wednesday at the United Steelworkers union’s headquarters in Pittsburgh.
There was little doubt what Biden was referencing, and the line drew laughter in response.
It’s the most attention Biden has given in public to Trump’s trial involving hush-money payments he allegedly made to a former porn star. The trial could last six to eight weeks, limiting the presumptive Republican nominee’s movements on the campaign trail.
During the first two days of a threeday campaign swing in the Granite State, Biden attacked Trump aggressively. He slammed Trump’s “Mar-alago values,” referred to “Donald ‘Herbert Hoover’ Trump,” and poked fun at the cratering stock performance of Truth Social, Trump’s social media company.
But he has refrained from discussing Trump’s trial.
Biden has used his Pennsylvania campaign blitz, which included a trip Thursday to Philadelphia, to make an economic case to working-class voters both he and Trump are courting in key battleground states. Biden has sought to cast Trump as an out-of-touch elitist who cares about the rich and didn’t deliver on the manufacturing boom he promised.
Addressing steelworkers in Pittsburgh, Biden put his weight behind the survival of the long-battered U.S. steel industry, vowing that Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp. will remain Americanowned and threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese imports of steel and aluminum.
“I stand by you,” he said, reiterating his opposition to the planned $14.9 billion
sale of U.S. Steel − an iconic American brand for more than a century − to Japanese-based Nippon Steel Corp.
“It should remain a totally American company: American-owned, American-operated by American union steelworkers, the best in the world,” Biden said. “And that’s going to happen, I promise you.”
Ahead of the November election, Biden is looking to improve Democratic performance with white, workingclass voters without college degrees, who have increasingly moved to the Republican camp in the Trump era.
On Wednesday, he turned his attention to China, embracing a trade tactic often deployed by Trump during his presidency by threatening to triple the 7.5% tariff rate on Chinese steel and aluminum to 25%.
Biden accused China of overproducing steel, flooding the global markets at artificially lower prices and undercutting American steel, which is subject to higher environmental standards during production.
Biden ordered U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to conduct an investigation into China’s trade practices in shipbuilding following a petition by United Steelworkers that alleged China is pursuing aggressive non-market policies that have allowed it to dominate the global market.