Joe Biden went after Bernie Sanders’ quest for Medicare-for-all during a campaign stop in rural South Carolina Thursday.
‘You know, Sen. Sanders Medicare-for-all push will be a long, long expensive slog,’ Biden told about two dozen people seated in the parking lot of the St. James-Santee Family Health Center in the small town of McClellanville. ‘Cost over $35 trillion dollars and the patients can’t afford to wait for what he calls, and others call – and I believe they’re totally sincere – a revolution.’
The 2020 hopeful instead argued that, ‘when you’re sick you want peace of mind,’ pitching his ‘Bidencare’ plan instead.
Joe Biden said Thursday that Bernie Sanders’ Medicare-for-all quest ‘will be a long, long expensive slog’ and said that sick people don’t want a ‘revolution’
Joe Biden addressed several dozen people outside the St. James-Santee Family Health Center in McClellanville, South Carolina on Thursday
Joe Biden made his healthcare pitch to South Carolina voters, saying that ‘Bidencare’ would build on Obamacare by providing a ‘Medicare-like’ public option
Joe Biden didn’t answer questions at his campaign stop in McClellanville Thursday, including one on President Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus outbreak
Joe Biden criticized both Bernie Sanders and President Trump on the topic of healthcare during a visit to a health center in the small town of McClellanville, South Carolina on Thursday
Joe Biden enters the St. James-Santee Family Health Center in McClellanville. He was given a short tour and then gave brief remarks on healthcare
The former vice president has campaigned on improving Obamacare by adding a ‘Medicare-like’ public option.
Sanders, who’s become the frontrunner in the Democratic race, though is lagging behind Biden in South Carolina, wants to move every American off private health insurance and onto Medicare.
‘It took five presidents just to get this done, it was a giant step forward, Obamacare,’ Biden said Thursday. ‘And this president’s trying to wipe it out and other people want to start over as well,’ he said, in a dig at Sanders, and also Elizabeth Warren, who also promotes Medicare-for-all.
‘But the most important thing is I can actually get it passed. We can actually pass it,’ Biden said. ‘People aren’t going to have to wait five, six, seven, eight, 10 years for something that is not likely to pass at all.’
Sanders wants to transition American onto Medicare over a multi-year period.
‘What we can’t afford to do is tear it all down and start all over again,’ Biden said.
Biden also used his brief speech to trash Republicans – including President Trump and former South Carolina governors, including Nikki Haley, who wouldn’t expand Medicaid to the state after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the proper bill title for ‘Obamacare.’
‘While this election is about getting rid of Donald Trump and his antagonism toward health care – he does not think it is a right, he thinks it is a privilege,’ Biden said. ‘It is a privilege really left for folks with real income, if that’s a privilege,’ Biden said in a quick segue.
‘It’s also about seizing an opportunity, to take a big next, big step forward on heatlhcare,’ Biden said, getting back on track.
He said that he wasn’t running to ‘destroy’ President Obama’s signature achievement, seemingly another knock at Sanders.
‘I’m not suggesting we start from scratch or something new, I’m running to protect it and build on it,’ he said of Obamacare.
The former vice president, sporting his trademark aviator sunglasses, spoke for just 10 minutes and didn’t take questions, including one on Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Other Democrats have criticized the president’s decision to put Vice President Mike Pence in charge.
Biden looks to be in a comfortable position in South Carolina, a state that he’s previously referred to as ‘a real firewall’ for his campaign.
He made the comments to NBC News in early February, though later denied using that phrasing when asked about it by ‘Face the Nation’ host Margaret Brennan.
The latest poll, from Monmouth University, shows Biden with 36 per cent support among Democratic primary voters in South Carolina.
The next-best candidate, Sanders, is 20 points behind.
Sanders earns 16 per cent in the state, battling it out for a close second place with billionaire Tom Steyer, who amassed 15 per cent – up 11 percentage points from the last poll.
Sanders, so far, leads the race for convention delegates with 45. Steyer, on the other hand, has zero.
In South Carolina among black voters, Biden has an even more dominating lead, receiving 45 per cent from this important voting bloc.
Steyer has more support than Sanders from black voters. The billionaire receives 17 per cent, while Sanders is at 13 per cent.
Throughout the campaign so far, Biden performed surprisingly poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire, which he has attributed to the lack of racial diversity. He came in fourth and fifth respectively.
Former Vice President Joe Biden has a dominating lead in South Carolina, according to the most recent poll in the final early primary contest state
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (left) and billionaire Tom Steyer (right) are battling it out for a distant second place in South Carolina with 16 per cent and 15 per cent respectively
He came in second place in Nevada, which has a more diverse electorate, but it wasn’t even close – earning 20 per cent of the vote to Sanders’ nearly 47 per cent.
In the Monmouth survey, which was released Thursday, no other candidate polled in the double-digits.
Warren got 8 per cent from the Democratic electorate. She’s fallen 8 points in the state.
Pete Buttigieg – who has struggled to gain support among the black community but performed well in the early contests – feel to fifth place of the eight remaining candidates.
He earned 6 per cent in the Monmouth poll conducted February 23-25, an increase of 3 points.
But Buttigieg only earned the support of 2 per cent of black South Carolina Democrats.
Another 15 per cent of South Carolina Democrats told pollsters they were still undecided.
Voters in the Palmetto State head to the polls Saturday.