President Joe Biden said Monday that the late Senator John McCain still drives Donald Trump "crazy."
While delivering a speech in New Hampshire and speaking about lowering costs for American families, Biden brought up McCain and the Arizona Republican's support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare.
"John loved New Hampshire, and he still drives my predecessor crazy," Biden said during the speech. "Even though John's long gone. That's John."
During his speech, Biden went on to say that he's working to protect and expand the ACA, which has been frequently criticized by Trump, who wants to replace it.
The Context
In January, Biden issued a statement announcing that "a record-breaking 20 million Americans have enrolled in health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces."
"We must build upon this progress and make these lower health care premiums permanent. But extreme Republicans have blocked these efforts at every turn," the president said.
In December, Trump vowed to get rid of the Obama-era policy and provide an alternative if he is reelected in November.
"Obamacare is too expensive and otherwise not good health care," Trump said. "I will come up with a much better, and less expensive, alternative. People will be happy, not sad."
What We Know
In 2017, McCain joined all Senate Democrats and two other Republicans in voting against a partial repeal of Obamacare, a blow to Trump and his efforts to eliminate the ACA while in the White House.
Newsweek reached out to a Trump spokesperson via email for comment.
In a 2017 statement, McCain said that while he believed that Obamacare should be repealed "and replaced with a solution that increases competition, lowers costs, and improves care for the American people," a partial repeal would not solve the problems with U.S. health care.
"While the amendment would have repealed some of Obamacare's most burdensome regulations, it offered no replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens," McCain said at the time.
Views
Last month, a survey from KFF, a health policy research organization, found that only 35 percent of Trump supporters believe that the former president has a plan to replace Obamacare if he wins again in 2024.
Across all voters, the survey found that 42 percent said they didn't believe Trump had a different national health care plan to replace Obamacare, while 43 percent said they were unsure.
What's Next
In a post to Truth Social in November 2023, Trump said, "I don't want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!"
Trump is the presumptive nominee for the GOP presidential nomination, and the election appears set to be a rematch of the 2020 contest between Biden and Trump.
Update 3/11/24, 3:37 p.m. and 3:54 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with further information and background.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
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