Joe Biden Calls Out Amazon. Amazon Torches Him In Statement.

Amazon fired back at presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden late on Friday after Biden accused Amazon of not paying “its fair share.”

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: No company pulling in billions of dollars in profits should pay a lower tax rate than firefighters and teachers,” Biden tweeted. “It’s time for Amazon to pay its fair share.”

Included in Biden’s tweet was a link to a CNBC news article that highlighted remarks Biden had given on Friday morning during an interview with the publication.

“I don’t think any company, I don’t give a damn how big they are, the Lord almighty, should absolutely be in a position where they pay no tax and make billions and billions and billions of dollars, No. 1,” Biden said. “The whole notion of this is: Are you playing the game fairly? What’s the capitalist system all about? The capitalist system is about everyone dealing fairly and dealing straight up with the American people and with their employees.”

Amazon responded to Biden’s remarks several hours after he posted his tweet, writing: “Joe Biden, We pay every cent owed. You spent 3 decades in the Senate & know that Congress wrote these tax laws to encourage companies to invest in the US economy. We have. 500k jobs w/ a min wage of $15/hr across 40 states. Assume your complaint is w/ the tax code, not Amazon.”

Here are the remarks that Biden made on CNBC about Amazon:

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Mr. Vice President, just following up on that issue. Elizabeth Warren has talked about trying to break up Amazon, a company that so many Americans have become so reliant on providing essential services during this pandemic. When you seek to break that company up?

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I think Amazon should start paying their taxes. Okay. I don’t think any company, I don’t give a damn how they are, Lord Almighty, should actually be in a position where they pay no taxes and make billions and billions and billions of dollars. Number one. Number two, I think that companies should be in a position where they start paying their employees a decent wage and protect their employees. And so, that’s the whole notion of this is, are you playing the game? Like it was set up long before. What’s the capitalist system all about? The capitalist system is about everybody doing — having a — dealing fairly and dealing straight up with the American people and with their employees. We’re not investing nearly as much as we should be doing in a whole range of areas. You know, that study that was done by the University of Massachusetts, 2004 to 2014, Corporate America. And I come from a corporate capital of the world, Delaware. And I’m not anti-corporate. But here’s the deal. the idea that they made several trillion dollars, and all the studies show that 54% went to buy back their stock, 37% to make sure their stockholders got rewarded, leaving 9% for research, development, raises, employment, etc. Come on, man. That’s not the capitalist system. You know, Friedman is not alive and well. But he seems to be running the show here.

Biden’s tweet calling out Amazon came after he made what were widely deemed as racist remarks about black people during a separate interview on Friday morning, saying, “I tell you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”