EXCLUSIVE: President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris aren’t sitting idly by this week and letting Republican presidential hopefuls dominate the airwaves with multiple prime-time events without having their own say.
In coordination with the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Biden-Harris campaign is doing a bit of its own trolling by erecting giant billboards across Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the site of Wednesday’s fourth Republican presidential debate, targeting the top-tier GOP challengers on their healthcare policies.
“No to healthcare repeal. No to slashing Medicare and Medicaid, No to extreme abortion bans,” the billboards read, alongside unflattering photos of either former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
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The billboards went up early Tuesday morning across Tuscaloosa, near the University of Alabama where the debate will be held, and will remain in place through the debate on Wednesday night.
The effort by the Biden-Harris campaign and the DNC aims to shine light on the expressed opposition by those candidates to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as “Obamacare,” which Democrats say would leave more than 40 million Americans uninsured and millions more facing higher healthcare costs.
The campaign also wants to highlight that Alabama, a reliably Republican state, is one of only 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid under the ACA.
“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,” DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika told Fox News Digital.
“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 added.
According to one DNC aide, the effort to tackle Republicans’ healthcare policies head-on is a continuation of the Biden campaign’s focus on what it says is Trump’s vision for America in 2025, the year he would take office if victorious over Biden.
The aide added that the debate 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 that make it easier for criminals to carry firearms.
They added that the campaign would be focused on that message throughout Republican debate, as well Trump’s appearance in a Fox News town hall, which will be hosted by Sean Hannity and will air Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. ET.
A number of Biden surrogates will also be in Tuscaloosa on the day of the debate to make the administration’s case, including principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks, former Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., and Democrat Alabama state Sen. Barbara Drummond.
Trump will not be participating in Wednesday’s debate. Haley and DeSantis will be joined at the debate by entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
