Former President Trump stumbled on the issue of health care during his debate with Vice President Harris, giving vague and sometimes contradictory answers about his plans for abortion and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The performance made clear that the ACA, also known as Obamacare, has been a particular sticking point for Trump, and also drew further attention to his shifting stance on abortion, one of the key issues of the campaign.
During Tuesday's debate, Trump did not state his plans on either issue.
“The former president stepped on every possible landmine on both sides,” said Republican strategist Chuck Coughlin.
Regarding Obamacare, President Trump suggested he might repeal the law again, but did not say whether he had a plan to replace it.
He called the law “terrible” but reluctantly promised to enforce it “as well as we can” unless and until there is a better, cheaper option.
“It's still not going to be great,” Trump said. “If I could come up with a plan that would give people better health care than Obamacare, at a lower cost, I would absolutely do it. It would be much better than Obamacare.”
The law quickly became a political liability for Democrats after it was passed in 2010. It cost them control of the House and Senate, and ultimately the presidency, as Trump won the White House in 2016 on a platform of “repeal and replace” the health care law.
But the law's popularity soared after President Trump and Republican lawmakers failed by one vote to repeal it in 2017. Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections on a platform of protecting pre-existing conditions.
When Trump was elected in November 2016, only 43% of adults supported Obamacare, according to a tracking poll conducted by the nonpartisan health research group KFF. In the most recent poll released in May, 62% said they had a favorable view of the law.
During the debate, in one of many attempts to rile up Trump and throw him off track, Harris recalled the moment then-Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted against the Republican bill in a dramatic late-night vote that, along with Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), gave Democrats the three Republican votes they needed to keep the bill in place.
“That night, I'll never forget, the late Senator John McCain walked onto the Senate floor and said, 'No, it's not that,'” Harris said.
Democrats now say they want to build on that law, but some of their party's most prominent members, including Harris, supported a single-payer “Medicare for All” system during the 2020 presidential campaign.
When pressed by the debate moderator, Trump acknowledged that he currently had no plan to replace Obamacare if it were repealed.
“I have a plan in mind. I'm not the president right now,” Trump said.
Coughlin, who lives in Arizona, said Trump's comments were thought-provoking.
“I think the reason McCain voted against it is because they didn't have an alternative. He just repealed it, it's not a repeal and replace. They didn't have any plan to replace it,” Coughlin said.
Trump has never spoken specifically about how he would replace health insurance for tens of millions of Americans.
In 2015, he promised to replace it “with something great.” In 2016, he said, “We'll get great health care for a lot less money.” In 2017, he said, “We'll get health care for everyone.”
Most Republicans have said they have no interest in trying to repeal the law again, even if they regain control of the White House and the Senate next year.
Republican strategists also suggested Trump's ego could be preventing him from losing his reputation in another battle against Obamacare.
Democrats have made health care an important issue in this election, with polls showing voters wanting to hear a plan to reduce health care costs, and Democratic groups portraying Trump as an “existential threat” to get voters to the polls.
The Democratic group Protect Our Care said voters should understand that just because President Trump doesn't have a plan doesn't mean he won't try to take away people's health insurance.
“His 'plan concept' comments are easy to ridicule, but the situation for health care couldn't be more serious,” said Leslie Dach, founder and president of the group. “His record speaks for itself: He will stop at nothing to gut the ACA and its core protections, leaving millions of Americans losing their insurance and paying thousands of dollars more for health care when health care is back on the ballot in November.”
Even if Trump doesn't seek to replace Obamacare outright, he could target it to offset his promises of trillions of dollars in tax cuts and trillions of dollars in cuts to federal spending.
On the issue of abortion, Trump's ever-changing positions were on full display when Harris tried to blame him on the issue.
He sidestepped the issue of a possible veto of a nationwide abortion ban, repeated claims he has already denied that Democrats want to “execute” babies after birth, and falsely claimed that Democrats want to overturn Roe just as much as Republicans.
“In terms of banning abortion, no, I'm not in favor of banning abortion,” Trump said when asked directly about a possible veto, “but that issue is now a non-issue because the states have taken over that issue.”
But Trump did not explicitly say he would veto the ban if it reached his desk at the White House, instead countering that his vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), told him last month that Trump would “unequivocally” veto a nationwide ban.
“To be fair, I haven't discussed this with J.D.,” Trump said. “I don't mind that he has certain views, but I don't think he was speaking for me.”
The remarks are a regular ploy by Trump, who is acutely aware of the political responsibility of taking a firm stance on the issue of abortion. Trump, who appointed the three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, has sought to maintain an ambiguous stance on the issue for fear of losing the support of religious conservatives and moderates.
Trump also faces a widening gender gap, with polls showing women favoring Harris, and his efforts to close the gap appear to be failing.
Trump has bragged about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, but also said it was something everyone wanted to see. This spring, he finally seemed to settle on an argument for giving states more power to decide abortion.
In doing so, Trump has faced criticism from all sides, but he and his advisers are also making a calculated bet that the religious right will not abandon him because they have nowhere else to go.
After the debate, Vance tried to backtrack on his veto answer, telling CNN and ABC in separate interviews that Trump opposes a nationwide ban and rejects the hypothetical premise of the question.
But Vance did not repeat his previous comments about Trump's veto power.
Abortion is banned or restricted in nearly 20 states, and Governor Harris on Tuesday repeatedly referred to the various current laws as “Trump's anti-abortion laws.”
“The government, and certainly Donald Trump, should not be telling women what to do with their bodies,” Harris said.
Trump again painted himself into a corner during the debate, said Republican consultant Keith Norton.
“Trump failed on the abortion issue because he rambled on about it. Voters stop listening when you try to talk too much, and his speeches were often incoherent,” Norton said in an email. “If he had stuck to letting state voters decide, that might have made things better, but he rambled on and on, as he always does.”
