Race for the White House/ Candidates “collide” from different grounds, Trump in the courtroom, Biden in the campaign

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RKS NEWS 5 Min Read
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Presidential candidate Donald Trump will be in the courtroom again today as the jury selection process continues. Mr. Trump is accused of falsifying business records. Meanwhile, as Voice of America correspondent Scott Stearns reports, his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, continues the electoral campaign by emphasizing the two candidates’ different visions for an economy that should serve everyone.

Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump had very different engagements this week.

Former President Trump appeared in a New York courtroom facing 34 counts of falsifying business records.

“I don’t know how you can have a trial that takes place in the middle of elections. It’s not fair,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Biden is campaigning in the state of Pennsylvania.

The trial against former President Trump concerns payments he made before the 2016 election to ensure the silence of two women who claim they had sexual relations with him. Prosecutors say Mr Trump falsified business records to hide payments made through his former lawyer.

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and his lawyers say the payments were legitimate expenses.

The former president says that his presence in the courts is interference in elections by a judiciary that is being used politically.

“This is an attack on our country and it is a country that is failing. It is a country run by an incompetent man who is very involved with this issue. It is really an attack on a political opponent. That’s all,” Mr. Trump said.

The former president is not required to testify in this trial, but former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani says he will testify for political reasons.

“This court case is not only for the courtroom, but also for public opinion. And Trump is in an election year and he’s going to sit on the witness stand and address the American people and the undecided voters. I think that if he decided not to speak, this would turn against him in the eyes of undecided voters”, says Mr. Rahmani.

While his political opponent is in court, President Biden continues with his election campaign.

“Donald Trump sees the world differently from you and me. He wakes up at Mar-a-Lago thinking about himself. How he can help his billionaire friends take over and impose their extreme agenda on the rest of us. Hear what he has to say. He says, I’m quoting him, ‘I’ll be a dictator on day one’. I quote, ‘I am your payback,'” President Biden said.

The two candidates have “opposite visions” for the American economy, President Biden says, “raising fundamental questions about what is right.”

“Our origin is important. When I look at the economy, I don’t look at it through Mar-a-Lagos eyes. I see it through the eyes of Scranton, and that’s not hyperbole, it’s fact. Where honesty and dignity matter, where trust matters. Where family is everything,” said President Biden.

Former President Trump said that it is not right for him to remain blocked in court, while President Biden is on campaign activities.

“I should be campaigning in Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina and many other states right now. All of this is coming from the Biden White House, as this man is unable to string two sentences together. He cannot campaign. He’s using this to try to win the election,” Mr. Trump said.

He has managed to schedule some campaigning in New York while the trial continues, but his remaining options for campaigning in other states that matter for the presidential election are limited to weekends.

Former President Trump met with supporters in Pennsylvania last Saturday and has an event planned in North Carolina this weekend./ VOA

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