Biden campaign readies health care fight in latest attack on Trump
Originally Published: 28 NOV 23 09:29 ET By Arlette Saenz, CNN
Washington (CNN) — The Biden campaign is seizing on former President Donald Trump’s recent threat to repeal Obamacare, marking their latest effort to sound the alarm on the GOP frontrunner’s policy vision.
The campaign is readying surrogates, messaging pushes and a TV ad aimed at drawing a stark contrast between President Joe Biden’s work to improve health care and costs related to it, and Trump’s approach.
The Biden campaign’s push is the latest step in a strategy to put Trump’s policy proposals front and center as they seek to draw a starker contrast with the GOP frontrunner heading into 2024. Recent polling has shown the former president leading Biden in key battleground states and on the national level. The Biden campaign views the health care fight as fruitful ground as Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare have repeatedly failed, prompting some in the GOP to refrain from campaigning to push for its end.
The effort comes in the days after Trump said Republicans should “never give up” on trying to repeal the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, adding that he was “seriously looking at alternatives.” The former president’s comments came in response to a Wall Street Journal op-ed on the issue.
The Biden campaign has looked to boost Trump’s comments on social media, and Biden himself weighed in on the health care divide on Monday.
“My predecessor’s – once again, God love him – call for cuts that could rip away health insurance for tens of millions of Americans,” Biden said at a White House event on supply chains. “They just don’t give up. But guess what? We won’t let these things happen.”
On Tuesday, the Biden campaign is having former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, whose state will start its Medicaid expansion on Friday, hold a press call to respond to Trump’s threats.
Biden’s team plans on running a new health care focused TV ad in Las Vegas – in the key battleground state of Nevada – and national cable later in the week, a campaign official said. The campaign also is seeking to call attention to various health care provisions Biden has worked to improve, including coverage for pre-existing conditions.
The campaign also will lean on state Democratic parties in swing states to host events this week to talk about the effects of repealing the Affordable Care Act, the official said.
Trump “was one vote away from getting it done when he was president – and we should take him at his word that he’ll try to do it again,” said Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa. “Donald Trump’s America is one where millions of people lose their health insurance and seniors and families across the country face exorbitant costs just to stay healthy. Those are the stakes next November.”
It’s not just the campaign looking to build off Trump’s comments. The White House used the moment to slam congressional Republicans over health care, arguing in a memo that they “keep proving that the top objective of MAGAnomics is tax giveaways for rich special interests, even if it means major price hikes on families.”
“Nowhere is the MAGAnomics threat to middle class families’ bottom lines more severe than when it comes to health care,” wrote White House spokesperson Andrew Bates.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
