US President Donald Trump has reiterated a call that he and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden should be tested for drugs before the two rivals come face-to-face during their first debate on Tuesday.
Taking to Twitter on Sunday, the President said: “I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night. Naturally, I will agree to take one also.
“His debate performances have been record setting uneven, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy?”
Even earlier, Trump has put out multiple calls for the candidates to take drug tests ahead of the 90-minute debate scheduled to take place on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University in Iowa, The Hill news website reported.
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Biden and Trump will neither shake hands or do an elbow bump at the debate.
Sources told Politco news that Trump, Biden and debate moderator, Fox News host Chris Wallace, will not wear masks.
According to the sources, the debate will see the participation of only 75 to 80 people who will be tested for the virus prior to them attending the event.
The first question will go to Trump, who will be standing to the right, while the former Vice President will be to the left.
US President Donald Trump did not pay his income tax for 10 of the 15 years before the 2016 election, and only $750 the year he ran for the presidency and in his first year in the White House, a media report has revealed.
The New York Times newspaper revealed this information on Sunday after obtaining Trump’s tax information for the last 20 years, The Hill news website reported.
The Times said it reviewed tax returns relating to the President and the companies owned by the Trump Organization going back to the 1990s, as well as his personal returns for 2016 and 2017, reports the BBC.
It said the President paid just $750 in income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, while he paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the past 15 years, “largely because he reported losing much more money than he made”.
In a statement to the New York Times, Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten said that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate”.
(190208) — WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2019 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Donald Trump departs from the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Feb. 8, 2019. U.S. President Donald Trump is receiving his annual medical check-up at a military hospital outside Washington D.C. on Friday, a year after his physician suggested he lose a few pounds and exercise more. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)
“Over the past decade, President Trump has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government, including paying millions in personal taxes since announcing his candidacy in 2015,” Garten was quoted as saying to the newspaper.
Later in the day during a White House briefing, Trump denied the allegation and called the report “totally fake news”.
“Actually I paid tax. And you’ll see that as soon as my tax returns – it’s under audit, they’ve been under audit for a long time,” the BBC quoted the President as saying.
“The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) does not treat me well they treat me very badly. You have people in the IRS, they treat me very badly,” he added.
Trump has faced legal challenges for refusing to share documents concerning his fortune and business.
He is the first US President since the 1970s not to make his tax returns public, though this is not required by law.
Meanwhile, an ad released by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign slammed Trump over The New York Times’ revelation, The Hill news website repored.
Without any narration, the ad released on Twitter late Sunday night, features the faces of a number of American taxpayers and their corresponding tax burdens, before comparing their payments to the $750 reportedly paid by Trump during his first year in office.
Other Democrats also took to social media to slam Trump.
In a tweet, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said: “Donald Trump paid just $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017. He knows better than anyone that there’s one set of rules for the wealthy and giant corporations and another for hardworking Americans—and instead of using his power to fix it, he’s taken advantage of it at every turn.”
Also taking to the micro-blogging site, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wrote: “Shock of shocks. Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, received a $72.9 million tax refund from the IRS while not paying a nickel in federal income taxes in 10 out of 15 years.
Yep. Trump l-o-v-e-s corporate socialism for himself, rugged capitalism for everyone else.”
US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will neither shake hands or do an elbow bump due to the Covid-19 pandemic when the two rivals come face-to-face during their first debate on Tuesday, according to informed sources.
The 90-minute debate will be on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University in Iowa.
The sources told Politco news that Trump, Biden and debate moderator, Fox News host Chris Wallace, will not wear masks.
According to the sources, the debate will see the participation of only 75 to 80 people who will be tested for the virus prior to them attending the event.
The first question will go to Trump, who will be standing to the right, while the former Vice President will be to the left.
In March, Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders had participated in a Democratic party primary debate in Washington with no audience while standing six feet apart.
US citizens in the UAE have to complete the voting process latest by Wednesday, 30th September for the US Presidential election 2020, if they want to utilise the voter assistance offered by the US diplomatic missions, an official said on Thursday.
“If people are returning ballots through us, we recommend all absentee ballots be delivered to the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi or US Consulate General in Dubai on or before Wednesday, 30th September,” Daniela Zadrozny, Consular Chief at the US Consulate General in Dubai, told Emirates News Agency, WAM.
However, submitting the voted ballot at the US diplomatic missions in the UAE is an option; alternatively, voters can directly send it to their local election officials in the US before the deadlines, Zadrozny clarified.
Methods to submit ballot
“Various states have different deadlines. The actual times in the US will usually be on or around election day [3rd November]. People are welcome to send their ballots on their own via other means; we just offer the collection and sending as voter assistance,” Zadrozny said.
She advised the voters to check their voter registration deadline based on their state on the website of the US Federal Voting Assistance Programme, FVAP.
Importance of overseas voters
“If US citizen voters have not completed the voter registration process, we encourage them to do so immediately. The process to register to vote and submitt the ballot is fast, easy and an important part of being an American overseas!” the diplomat stressed.
About the importance of overseas voting, she pointed out that there were instances of US elections for the House and Senate having been decided by a margin smaller than the number of ballots cast by absentee voters.
All states are required to count every absentee ballot as along as it is valid and reaches local election officials by the absentee ballot receipt deadline, Zadrozny said.
Number of overseas voters
The US Mission in the UAE estimates there are 75,000 US citizens living in the UAE, as of April 2020.
Asked about the number of voters in the UAE, she said the US Mission does not have the number of voters here because the election and voter registration are managed individually by the states and territories.
However, Zadrozny cited an FVAP study published in July 2020, analysing the overseas citizen population during the 2018 US midterm election. The study found that the global rate of overseas voter participation was 4.7 percent and 1.9 percent in the Middle East. An estimated 2.9 million voting age US citizens are living abroad, based on state and local government absentee ballot records, the study revealed.
For the US presidential election in 2016, the global participation for rate for overseas voters was 7.8 percent and 4.8 percent in the Middle East. FVAP did not provide data for changes in eligible or registered voters since 2018, the diplomat said.
Registration and voting process
Regarding the registration and voting process for overseas voters, the Consular Chief explained that all US citizen voters can request to receive their absentee ballots electronically. Depending on the state in which they are eligible to vote, they may get their ballot by email, fax, or internet download.
Voters should visit FVAP.gov to connect with their state’s voter portal to register to vote and request an absentee ballot, she said.
If voters have not received their absentee ballot 30 days prior to the election, they should complete and submit the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, FWAB, to ensure their vote is received in time to be counted, she added.
Preparations in UAE
Talking about the arrangements for voters in the UAE, she said the embassy and the consulate are accepting election materials, including absentee ballots, on working days from 8:00 to 16:00, and US citizens do not need to make an appointment to submit their election materials.
When dropping their ballot at the missions, voters should bring a self-addressed, and self-stamped envelope. Security will screen the envelope and return it to the voter who may seal the envelope, which is then deposited into the secure drop box.
The sealed absentee ballots in the locked ballot box are securely transferred from the US missions to local election officials in the US, the Consular Chief said.
