Trump team tries reviving decades-old plagiarism charges that ended Joe Biden's 1987 campaign

But Mr Biden says president's economic policies have produced a 'terrible human cost and a deep economic toll'

John T. Bennett
Washington Bureau Chief
Friday 10 July 2020 15:49 BST
Comments
Donald Trump says Joe Biden should take cognitive test, but would not pass it not

Donald Trump and his top aides are accusing Joe Biden of plagiarising the president's economic approach with the sweeping "buy American" plan he rolled out Thursday, trying to make an old problem for the former vice president a new one.

Using language typically reserved for children's playground squabbles, Mr Trump said his presumptive general election foe "copied me" with the theme of his $700bn economic plan.

"It's a plan that's very radical left. But he said the right things because he's copying what I've done," the president said over the hum of Marine One's engines on the White House's South Lawn as he left for a day-long trip to Florida for events on counternarcotics, the unrest in Venezuela, and campaign fundraisers.

"He plagiarised from me. But he can never pull it off," Mr Trump said. "He likes plagiarising."

Accusing Mr Biden, who leads Mr Trump nationally by double-digits in many polls and by margins outside several surveys' error ranges in just about every key battleground state, of lifting others' work was a talking point others at the White House also were pushing on Friday morning.

"Two days ago, he plagiarising Bernie Sanders. And yesterday he's plagiarising Donald Trump, buy American," Ms Conway told Fox News. "Yesterday Joe Biden gave his speech ... at a business that received a PPP loan and said small businesses didn't get PPP loans. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

She was referring to the Paycheck Protection Program that was created during coronavirus recovery package negotiations between Congress and the White House, and ultimately signed into law by Mr Trump. But the focus of her attack and her boss' minutes later date all the back to the late-1980s.

Biden sought the Democratic nomination twice before, first in 1987 and then in 2007. The first campaign ran into a dead end over allegations Mr Biden had plagiarised parts of a speech and assignments as a law student.

Mr Biden laid out his plan near his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania -- a key 2020 swing state in which RealClearPolitics' average of several polls gives him a 6.5 percentage point lead in a state Mr Trump won in 2016.

The former VP's economic plan calls for a massive infrastructure spending plan totaling $400bn (£311.7bn) in federal investments. Among other things, it would finance "products and materials our country needs to modernise our infrastructure, to replenish our critical stockpiles, and to enhance our national security," Mr Biden said Thursday.

It also proposes spending another $300bn (£233.7bn) in taxpayer monies over four years for research and development, a "mobilisation ... in ways not seen since World War II," Mr Biden said.

His campaign claims the plan would create 5 million new jobs and revive jobs lost over the last year, he said.

The president on Friday dinged his opponent for what he described as Mr Biden's plan, if elected, to begin "raising everyone's taxes." On that, Mr Trump has a point.

The Biden plan includes a proposed corporate tax rate hike to 28 per cent after a 2017 Republican tax cut bill that dropped it to 21 per cent. The presumptive Democratic nominee also said he wants to boost small businesses and end what he called "shareholder capitalism" he says allows large companies like Amazon to avoid paying income taxes.

The former VP slammed Mr Trump's promises like bringing back manufacturing jobs, saying the incumbent's economic policies have produced a "terrible human cost and a deep economic toll."

Alex Woodward contributed to this report.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in