now on the eve of the first televised
debate in the u.s presidential election
donald trump has been dealing with a
wave of new allegations about his tax
affairs
new york times says it has documents
which show the president paid just 750
dollars
in federal income tax in 2016 the year
in which he was elected president
and then the same amount again in 2017
his first year in the white house
he is said to have paid no income tax at
all in 10
of the previous 15 years president trump
said this was
yet another example of fake news let's
go live to cleveland ohio where
tomorrow's debate will be held
and join our north america editor john
sobel
here in u.s presidential elections
there's a thing called the october
surprise the
event that comes out of the blue and up
ends things
well it's arrived a few days early as
well as the income tax disclosures
it seems according to the new york times
that donald trump has
personal debts of 400 million
dollars and as well as that he wrote off
against tax
70 000 for the payment of hairdressers
ahead of tv appearances will joe biden
seek to take advantage of it
you bet he will there's nothing quite
like it
one-to-one combat the red and blue
corners two fighters looking to land a
knockout blow
and donald trump's taxes and what he did
and didn't pay
have opened up again as a line of attack
on the eve of this televised debate
his tax return is once again a burning
issue
it's totally fakeness made up fake maybe
he's not as rich as he says he is four
years ago hillary clinton thought she
had him pinned down
on this very topic or maybe he doesn't
want the american people
all of you watching tonight to know that
he's paid
nothing in federal taxes because the
only years that anybody's ever seen
were a couple of years when he had to
turn them over to state authorities when
he was trying to get a casino license
and they
showed he didn't pay any federal income
tax
so and when you're in the ring
do you stay cool under pressure or do
you start to sweat under the lights
back in 1960 john f kennedy was expected
to take a pounding from richard nixon
instead jfk was unfazed
and it was nixon who ended up on the
ropes when you're in a race
the only way to stay ahead is to move
ahead
boxing is governed by the queensberry
rules no punching below the belt
no holding break when i say break but
for the past four years
donald trump has played by no rule book
it's just
awfully good that someone with the
temperament of donald trump is not in
charge
of the law in our country because you'd
be in jail
secretary clinton
look at how he followed hillary clinton
around the room almost stalking her
but here's what i don't want people
donald trump revels in the image of
prize fighter
he controversially tweeted this mock
video of him beating up a critical news
network
it's just gotten worse with this
gentleman i used to learn
the team really loosely joe biden at the
start of this year
looked as though his best days were
behind him but his corner are confident
and bullish he will go the distance
the two people who will be lacing up
their gloves on tuesday have a combined
age of 151 years
probably neither will float like a
butterfly nor sting like a bee
but it's likely to be brutal and
compelling
john sopal bbc news cleveland ohio