Biden takes his first swipe at Trump for the Manhattan criminal trial: ... trends now

President Joe Biden make a joking reference to Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York while he campaigned for re-election in Pennsylvania, getting in a hit at his Republican rival.

'Under my predecessor, who's busy right now, Pennsylvania lost 275,000 jobs,' Biden said to U.S. steelworkers, who chuckled in response.

This week Biden is on a three-day Pennsylvania campaign swing that began in Scranton on Tuesday and will include a visit to Philadelphia on Thursday. Trump is stuck in a New York courtroom where he's defending himself against felony charges in a hush money case tied to porn star Stormy Daniels.

It was the first reference Biden made to Trump's trial. Trump is the first former president to ever face criminal charges.

Pennsylvania is a critical battleground state. Each man needs it in his column if he wants to return to the White House next year. 

Trump, 77, won the state from Democrats in the 2016 election, which helped put him in the White House. But Biden took it back in the 2020 contest, although he only won by a mere one point.

While Biden is on his three-day swing, Trump has been squeezing in campaign rallies on the weekends.  

In Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Biden made his pitch to steel workers, part of the blue-collar voting bloc he is courting for their votes.

The president called for a tripling on steel tariffs from China in order to protect American producers from cheap imports. The announcement came as the unions are angry about the planned purchase of U.S. Steel by a Japanese company.

Biden slammed China in his remarks.

'Would you trade places with China? Would you trade places with their problems? They've got a population that is more people in retirement than working. They're not importing anything. They're xenophobic - nobody else coming in. They've got real problems,' he said.

Both Biden and Trump have talked about how they will counter China as

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