Biden slams Trump on Justice Dept. independence

Campaigning in Charlotte, North Carolina, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden took a swing at President Donald Trump and his attorney general, Bill Barr.

Biden also promised the Justice Department will be free of political pressure, if he's elected president.

"The Justice Department under my administration will be totally independent of me," Biden said.

"I will not direct them who to prosecute, how to prosecute, what to prosecute."

The Democratic nominee is in a close race with Trump for North Carolina's 15 electoral votes.

Biden says he's been asked during the campaign about whether he would prosecute Trump if the current president is voted out of office.

"I'm not going to pursue prosecuting anybody," Biden said.

"I'm going to do what the Justice Department says should be done, should be done, and not politicize it. It's the most dangerous thing that's happened so far."

Biden traveled to Charlotte to talk about business, education and the coronavirus pandemic at a campaign event labeled "Black Economic Summit."

He pledge more federal dollars for education and historically Black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs, plus an increase in the federal minimum wage to fifteen dollars per hour.

He also touted a plan to provide up to $50,000 in debt relief for college graduates who work for five years in a job that Biden described as serving "the public interest.

And he defended his plan that would raise taxes on corporations from 21 to 28 percent, and boost the rate on "millionaires and billionaires" to 39.4 percent.

"It's time for everybody to start paying their fair share," he said.