The most relevant moment of Tuesday’s presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump was their exchange about Obamacare. Specifically, moderator Linsey Davis asking Trump, “so tonight, nine years after you first started running, do you have a [repeal and replace] plan and can you tell us what it is?”
Trump didn’t. So, he couldn’t.
Opinion Columnist
LZ Granderson
LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports and navigating life in America.
“Obamacare was lousy healthcare — always was, it’s not very good today,” he started. “What I said that if we come up with something, and we are working on things, we’re going to do it and we are going to replace it.“
He then shifted to complaining about Democrats, though Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress when he was elected. He later said he saved Obamacare from rotting, in a mid-rant plot twist.
Going into the night, some observers hoped that policy — and not personalities — would be the focus.
In retrospect, that was silly.
“What we will do is we’re looking at different plans,” Trump continued. “If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our population less money and be better healthcare than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it.”
Davis: “So, just yes or no, you still do not have a plan.”
Trump: “I have concepts of a plan.” That was all the 78-year-old could muster. Trump’s debate performance back in June wasn’t great either, even if that fact was overlooked because President Biden disappointed. And on Tuesday, the carnival barker, who once wrote that “truthful hyperbole” was “an innocent form of exaggeration,” had nothing substantive to offer. Like cotton candy in the rain.
During the Trump administration, we saw the value of Obamacare. Remember, nearly 80 million people lived in a household where someone lost their job during the early days of COVID-19. Of that number, roughly 48 million lost their insurance through their employer. Obamacare plans, though not perfect, were an option to help soften that blow. The Affordable Care Act also ensured that parents could keep their children on their insurance through age 26, which was helpful when the world shut down. Same can be said about making sure that Americans with pre-existing conditions could get coverage.
As president, Trump repeatedly tried to repeal Obamacare. We now know he was doing so without being close to a plan to replace it.
The man loves campaigning and standing in front of crowds. Governing and stewardship of a diverse nation … not so much. And for most of the 90 minutes Harris spent standing six feet from him, she toyed with Trump’s fragile ego. She baited him with remarks about the crowd size of his rallies, and he bit by making more outlandish claims. Harris baited Trump by bringing up his series of bankruptcies and the wealth he received from his father. He took that one as well.
Sometimes Harris gained points by not doing much of anything at all. Just hanging back and letting Trump talk.
“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” he baselessly claimed about migrants in Springfield, Ohio. When ABC News anchor and co-moderator David Muir told Trump that Springfield’s city manager had said there was no evidence of that, the former president said he saw it on television.
Before the debate, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) told me of this race: “It’s been more than 100 years since we had two people who had been in the White House, so it’s not really depending on promises and pledges but a clear contrast of record.”
The opening topic underscored Cotton’s point with questions about the economy.
The global pandemic of 2020, and the Trump administration’s botched response, led to the highest inflation rate in 40 years, soaring in the U.S. between May 2020 and July 2022, when it passed 9%. That’s Trump’s record.
The Biden-Harris administration’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act has helped bring the rate back down to under 3%.
Still, despite historically low unemployment under Biden and cooling inflation, a lot of Americans are struggling with the cost of living — largely because food, housing and healthcare prices keep rising. Many blame the current administration.
So Harris and Trump each had plenty of history to exploit against one another. And the former president made attempts to do so, loosely drawing the sort of policy contrasts that Cotton had said needed to be made. Unfortunately for Republicans, their nominee isn’t disciplined enough to stay on message about his record — nor is it exactly a model of consistency. California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom told a group of reporters before the debate that the former president’s erratic legacy would work against him.
“You want a flip-flop? Let’s talk about abortion with Donald Trump,” the governor said. “You want a flip-flop? All of a sudden he’s for legalizing marijuana. You want a flip-flop? Guy said he’d reduce the debt; it went up $8.4 trillion. I can keep going.”
Of course, there was no need. We know Donald Trump’s type.
A secret plan to defeat ISIS? Mexico is going to pay for the wall? Take your pick. In 2016, Trump the campaigner constantly wrote checks that Trump the elected official couldn’t cash. That’s not unique in history. However, being as unprepared and unfit as Trump showed himself to be on Tuesday night — that is remarkable. He looked old and sounded reckless. When asked about healthcare, he couldn’t even offer voters an empty promise and false hope. Just a blank space. (Perhaps this is why Taylor Swift — the world’s most famous childless cat lady — endorsed his opponent soon after the broadcast concluded.)
That’s where he was in 2015: all gripe and no solutions. That’s where he is today. And there’s a good chance that is where he’ll be come November.