The first general election debate between President Trump and Joe Biden devolved into an argument over healthcare after the candidates were asked about Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Fox News moderator Chris Wallace began by asking about Barrett’s nomination, and, after brief statements about the nominee from both candidates, the conversation turned to healthcare and whether people will be able to keep their private insurance under a Biden administration.
Trump said he has “a lot of time” both before and after the November election to confirm Barrett to the Supreme Court and said that if the roles were reversed, the Democrats would be doing the same thing.
“The American people have a right to have a say who the Supreme Court nominee is, and that say occurs when they vote for United States senators and when they vote for the president of the United States. They are not going to get that chance now because we are in the middle of an election already. The election has already started,” Biden responded. “Tens of thousands of people have already voted.”
“Now, what’s at stake here? The president has made it clear he wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act,” Biden added, transitioning the conversation to the topic of healthcare.
“My party is me,” Joe Biden says to charge from Pres. Trump that his party disagrees with him on health care proposals.
“Right now, I am the Democratic Party…the platform of the Democratic Party is what I, in fact, approved of.” https://t.co/5Bl4Ob3O2t #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/8AYkclBrAp
— ABC News (@ABC) September 30, 2020
Biden said that Barrett seems “like a very fine person” but claimed that Barrett has expressed opposition to the constitutionality of Obamacare.
“There are 100 million people who have preexisting conditions, and they will be taken away as well. Those preexisting conditions, the insurance companies are going to love this,” Biden said.
“There aren’t 100 million people with preexisting conditions. As far as a say is concerned, the people already had their say,” Trump said, referencing his Supreme Court nominee and the contention over whether the Senate should wait until after the election to confirm her.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, some 50 to 129 million non-elderly people in the U.S. have some form of a preexisting condition.
Trump made the claim that Biden wants to eliminate 180 million peoples’ private healthcare, an accusation that Biden said was “simply not true.”
“No. 1, he knows what I proposed. What I proposed is we expand Obamacare, and we increase it,” Biden said. He pointed out that some of his Democratic rivals to the left of him during the primaries hit him over his support for allowing people to keep their private insurance and said that his view still remains.
“Your party wants to go socialist medicine,” Trump interjected.
“The party is me. Right now, I am the Democratic Party. I am the Democratic Party right now,” Biden said. “The platform of the Democratic Party is what I, in fact, approved of.”
