Trump and Biden Battle Over the Supreme Court and Health Care in Tense Debate Open
President Donald Trump and Vice President Joe Biden started their face-off at the first 2020 presidential debate by locking horns over the future of the Supreme Court.
Fox News anchor and debate moderator Chris Wallace began the debate asking both candidates to make their argument for whether the 2020 election should decide who will choose the successor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
After touting the credentials of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Trump argued “we won the election and therefore we have the right to choose her” and said Democrats would do the same thing in the same position. Part of this involved Trump bringing up the stalled nomination of Merrick Garland, but he argued that the difference was he has the Senate majority on his side where Barack Obama did not.
Biden retorted that the 2020 election is underway, saying “the American people have a right to have a say in who the Supreme Court nominee is, and that say occurs when they vote for a United States senator and when they vote for the president of the United States.” After slamming Trump for his efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, Biden said “I’m not opposed to [Barrett], she seems like a very fine person. But she’s written…that she thinks the Affordable Care Act is not Constitutional.” Biden focused the rest of his answer on asserting that “it’s just not appropriate to do this before this election,” especially if ruling against the Affordable Care Act strips people of their health insurance during the coronavirus pandemic.
As Trump countered that he has the right as president to choose a new justice, Biden interjected “he’s elected until the next election…The election has already started.” Trump then moved on to claim Biden is going to bring about socialized medical care in America, to which, Biden retorted “that’s simply not true.”
“Your party wants to go socialist medicine and socialist health care, and they’re gonna dominate you,” Trump said.
“The party is me,” Biden responded. “Right now, I am the Democratic party. I am the Democratic party right now. The platform of the Democratic Party is what I, in fact, approved of.”
Watch above, via NBC.
