President Joe Biden is indicating healthcare will be a big part of his plan of attack against "MAGA Republicans" in the 2024 election.
At a White House event celebrating new progress toward lowering prescription drug prices and other healthcare costs for the public, Biden repeatedly blamed Republicans, specifically those supporting former President Donald Trump, for voting against the Inflation Reduction Act and seeking to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
"There's a lot of really great Republicans out there. I mean that sincerely, but I will stand up to the MAGA Republicans who voted against the Inflation Reduction Act and who are attempting to still repeal it," the president claimed. "The MAGA Republicans who have been trying for years to get rid of the Affordable Care Act and deny 10s of millions of Americans access to quality affordable healthcare. Today is the start of a new deal for patients where Big Pharma doesn't just have to get a blank check at your expense and the expense of the American people."
"On my watch, healthcare should be a right, not a privilege in this country," he added.
The president also closed by reiterating a familiar line he has started to use on the campaign trail, again pushing back on Republican rhetoric.
"We all hear from our friends on the other side of the aisle about what they claim is wrong with America. They tell you we're failing, that America is failing. Well, they're wrong. America isn't failing, America is winning. As I've said a thousand times, there is no quit in America," Biden forcefully stated. "It's never been a good bet to bet against America. This is still a country that believes in honesty, decency, and integrity, and we're still a country that believes in hard work. We're still a country believes that each and every one of us is created equal and deserves an equal chance, and we're still a beacon for the entire world."
The president's Tuesday speech comes after the conclusion of nearly a month of vacation time across Delaware and Nevada, and officials at his reelection campaign previously told the Washington Examiner that he plans to ramp up his attacks against the Republicans' platform.
For months this summer, Biden hinged his reelection hopes to a nationwide "Bidenomics" push. But that campaign failed to reverse his dismal economic polling. Biden 2024 campaign officials now say the president plans to use issues like healthcare, gun violence, voting rights, and abortion, all of which Democrats view as significant mobilizers for their base and young voters in particular, to draw a "through line" between his 2020 campaign and reelection effort.
In 2020, Biden, running against then-incumbent Trump, ran on a message of saving the "soul of the nation."
This time around, the president is urging voters to help him "finish the job."
Campaign officials stressed that Biden's "political operation is to build not just for him" but also down-ballot candidates, and those officials added that Biden will soon begin stumping for Democratic lawmakers in critical swing districts and states, just as he did heading into the 2022 midterm elections.
"We're in a strong position compared to a lot of incumbents because of just how effectively we've governed and how much legislation we've backed that is overwhelmingly popular and also reflective of a lot of the key issues that we know are top laying or top voting issues for Americans," one campaign official said in an interview. "Things like, on the kind of protecting freedoms scale of things, being against book bans, being for reproductive rights, codifying Roe into law, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, all issues that we are very much on the right side of."
Still, Biden is walking a fine line when it comes to turning up the heat on MAGA Republicans. Both the White House and his reelection campaign have said the president will not comment on the legal troubles plaguing his chief opponent.
It would follow that the more Biden travels and renews his stump speeches, the greater the opportunity to weigh in on the "Trump circus," as one senior Democratic official referred to the former president's legal matters.
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However, Biden's campaign maintains that the best way for the president to avoid appearing to influence Trump's coming trials is to "stick to the issues" and allow voters to draw their own conclusions about the differences between his platform and that of Republicans.
You can watch Biden's Tuesday remarks in full below.