The debate will take place on Wednesday at the University of Alabama. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris aren’t sitting back and allowing Republican presidential candidates dominate the airwaves with three prime-time appearances this week.
The Biden-Harris campaign, in collaboration with the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is engaging in its own trolling by erecting massive billboards across Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the site of Wednesday’s fourth Republican presidential debate, criticizing the top-tier GOP challengers’ healthcare policies.
“No repeal of healthcare.” “No to cutting Medicare and Medicaid, No to extreme abortion bans,” the billboards said, featuring unflattering photographs of either former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
The billboards were placed across Tuscaloosa early Tuesday morning, near the University of Alabama, where the debate will be held, and will remain in place until the debate on Wednesday night.
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The Biden-Harris campaign and the DNC are attempting to shed light on the candidates’ stated opposition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), colloquially known as “Obamacare,” which Democrats claim will leave more than 40 million Americans uninsured and millions more facing higher healthcare costs.
The campaign also wants to emphasize that Alabama, a solidly Republican state, is one of just ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
“Tomorrow’s debate is a reminder of the choice facing voters next November: President Biden’s plan to protect Americans’ health care and their fundamental freedoms, or the extreme MAGA agenda that would rip away health care coverage, jack up families’ health care costs, and ban abortion across the country,” Sarafina Chitika, the Democratic National Committee’s national Digital, in a statement.
“Let’s be clear: If Donald Trump and the other 2024 Republicans had their way, they’d implement an extreme, unpopular agenda to end the ACA’s protections for preexisting conditions, kick young people off their parents’ health insurance, and strip reproductive freedom away from as many women as possible,” she said in a statement.
According to one Democratic National Committee aide, the push to confront Republicans’ healthcare ideas is a continuation of the Biden campaign’s focus on what it claims is Trump’s vision for America in 2025, the year he would enter office if he defeated Biden.
The debate, according to the aide, is an opportunity to frame Alabama as ground zero for what another Trump term would look like, including no Medicare expansion, hundreds of thousands of Americans without healthcare as a result, near-total abortion bans, and laws making it easier for criminals to carry firearms.
They went on to say that the campaign would emphasize on that theme throughout the Republican debate, as well as Trump’s appearance in a Fox News town hall hosted by Sean Hannity, which will air Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. ET.
A number of Biden surrogates, including principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks, former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, and Democrat Alabama state Sen. Barbara Drummond, will be in Tuscaloosa on the day of the debate to promote the administration’s case.
Trump will not take part in the debate on Wednesday. At the debate, Haley and DeSantis will be joined by entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
