CNN’S Jess McIntosh Warns Biden ‘Sounds Suspiciously Like Trump’ on Medicare for All
Former Hillary Clinton senior adviser and current CNN analyst Jess McIntosh cautioned Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden against fear-mongering about Medicare for All, saying the former vice president “sounds suspiciously like Trump” in critiquing the plan.
On Tuesday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, the subject of Biden’s recently-unveiled health care plan, and concurrent criticism of Bernie Sanders‘ Medicare for All plan, came up.
“You know who likes to discussion right now of Medicare for all or not? Joe Biden,” co-anchor John Berman said, adding, “He is using it as a wedge, a policy wedge, with Bernie Sanders.”
He then played video of a Biden campaign ad in which the former veep said, “Listen, I understand the appeal of Medicare for all, but folks supporting it should be clear that it means getting rid of Obamacare. And I’m not for that.”
CNN analyst Alex Burns told Berman that he sees Biden’s move as stepping into the “center-left space in this race that he was expected to occupy all along.”
He added that after the first Democratic debate, supporters of Biden were disappointed that he didn’t “stake his ground as, ‘Yeah I am the more moderate guy on this stage,’ and now you’re seeing him do it.”
But McIntosh cautioned that “The risk that he has here, though, is that he comes dangerously close to using Republican talking points when talking about Medicare for All.”
“There was a lot of ‘Medicare as you know it will go away, seniors will be left with nothing,’ that sounds suspiciously like Donald Trump,” McIntosh said, referring to remarks Biden made at an Iowa forum on Monday.
“I think the transition from having roughly 60 million people … on Medicare now, to add another roughly 300 million people in one fell swoop, … Medicare goes away as you know it,” Biden told the crowd at the AARP event. “All the Medicare you have is gone, it’s a new Medicare system.”
“As long as Biden is trying to appeal to the Democratic base during the primary, they are not going to like him engaging with this topic using that kind of language,” McIntosh added.
At that forum, Biden did add that Medicare for All “may be as good, you may like it as well,” but added that the transition to such a program would be “kind of a little risky at this point.”
Biden’s plan would greatly expand Obamacare and cover 97 percent of Americans, according to his campaign, and would keep private health insurance in place. Sanders’ plan would effectively do away with private health insurance but would cover 100 percent of Americans.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
