GOP surrogates dismiss tax report as political jab during Trump bus tour stop in Monroeville

Reports claiming President Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years aren’t likely to sway voters toward Democratic challenger Joe Biden, former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta said Monday in Monroeville.

“Oh, ho hum, here we go again. It’s election time. He’s had four years of attack after attack after attack,” said Barletta, former House member and mayor of Hazleton, who became among the Trump campaign’s most active surrogates after a failed Senate bid.

“Let’s talk about policies. Let’s talk about who’s better for the American people and stop trying to find another reason why we shouldn’t have Donald Trump,” Barletta told the Tribune-Review shortly after speaking at a rally Monday afternoon in Monroeville as part of Team Trump’s bus tour across battleground states.

“And let’s talk about the fact that the man (Trump) is not even taking a pay (via a White House salary). … He’s actually donating his salary.”

The New York Times, citing two decades of tax records, reported Sunday that Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for president and in his first year in the White House. It said Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern times not to make them public, paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years.

Trump dismissed the Times report on Sunday as “fake news” and maintained he has paid taxes, though he gave no specifics. He also vowed that information about his taxes “will all be revealed,” but he offered no timeline for when he will do so.

Barletta predicted the news report of Trump’s purported tax records could “actually help Trump.”

“The more the media continues to attack him like this, the more and the harder the American people — the forgotten men and women — will fight for him,” Barletta said. “Because they see through the media bias.”

The report comes at a pivotal moment ahead of the first presidential debate Tuesday.

“It’s pretty interesting that it happened right before the debate, right?” said Republican National Committee deputy press secretary Michael Joyce, who attended the event. “Like Lou (Barletta) said, it’s just another jab, and when they seek these attacks in the media, I think it would motivate the right more than it would motivate the left, because the people that don’t like Donald Trump already dislike him.”

Barletta and Joyce joined other high-profile GOP surrogates and local elected officials Monday at an event attended by a little more than 100 Trump supporters at the GOP Victory Center at an office park in Monroeville. They condemned violence and looting related to civil protests and unrest.

Like Trump said in Pittsburgh last week, the surrogates compared a vote for Biden to a vote against 2nd Amendment rights and protecting funding for public safety.

The event marks a key piece to the Trump campaign strategy that differs from Biden’s approach of limiting travel and shifting to mostly virtual events because of the covid-19 pandemic.

“We can’t find anything out about Joe Biden because he doesn’t come out of the basement to answer questions,” Barletta said, echoing recent Trump remarks referring to “Hidin’ Biden” and “Sleepy Joe.”

Zoom calls and virtual events “just don’t hold as much weight as having these in-person events, getting out and talking to people,” Joyce said.

More than 120 volunteers have been going door to door across the region, with field offices in all 67 counties, including several within the city of Pittsburgh. Canvassers wear face masks and respect social distance guidelines and have yet to have any major issues or evidence of covid-19 spread through campaigning, according to Joyce.

Republican National Committee co-chair Tommy Hicks delivered brief remarks about his confidence in Trump clinching victory in Pennsylvania, despite recent polls showing Biden holding a narrow lead statewide.

“Whoever wins Pennsylvania probably wins the whole thing,” Joyce said.

The Team Trump bus tour next heads for the Altoona/Johnstown area, after making five stops in Allegheny County and one each in Beaver and Mercer counties.

As for the first presidential debate, Barletta said, “I can’t wait. It’s going to be really exciting.”