PENSACOLA, Florida — It was something you might not have expected to see at a Trump rally. However, Friday night, President Donald Trump played a Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign ad for his supporters.
During Thursday’s presidential debate in Nashville, TN, Trump accused former Vice President Joe Biden, his Democrat opponent in next month’s presidential election, of trying to cut Social Security and other entitlements while a member of the U.S. Senate.
Biden denied the claim and accused Trump of being confused.
“He’s a very confused guy,” Biden said in response to the claim at the debate. “He thinks he’s running against somebody else. He’s running against Joe Biden. I beat all those other people because I disagreed with them. Joe Biden, he’s running against. And the idea that we’re in a situation that we’re gonna destroy Medicare–this is the guy that the actuary of Medicare said if in fact–and–and Social Security–if in fact, he continues to withhold–his plan to withhold the tax on Social Security, Social Security will be bankrupt in–by 2023. With no way to make up for it. This is the guy who’s tried to cut Medicare. So, I don’t–I mean the idea that Donald Trump is lecturing me on Social Security and Medicare, come on.”
Trump urged debate watchers to go back and check the records before he was interrupted by moderator Kristen Welker.
On Friday, during a campaign rally in Pensacola, FL, Trump revisited that moment in the debate. However, this time he offered rallygoers evidence to back up the claim he had made about Biden.
“Joe Biden spent his entire time in the Senate — long days, hours, nights — working to cut your Social Security,” Trump explained. “You don’t know about that, and to cut your Medicare. People don’t know about that. He denies it. He denied it last night. He denied it last night. So today, I want to show you a second clip. You know I am into clips. Take a look.”
Following those remarks, Trump played a campaign commercial from March produced by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) now-defunct presidential campaign.
Transcript as follows:
SANDERS: Let me ask you a question, Joe.
BIDEN: Yeah.
SANDERS: You’re right here with me.
BIDEN: Yeah.
SANDERS: Have you been on the floor of the Senate — you were in the Senate a few years —
BIDEN: Yeah.
SANDERS: — time and time against talking about the necessity with pride about cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare, cutting veterans’ programs.
BIDEN: No.
SANDERS: You never said that?
BIDEN: No.
(BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)BIDEN: When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well! I mean Medicare and Medicaid. I meant veterans’ benefits. I meant every single, solitary thing in the government.
(END AUDIO TAPE)BIDEN: Look, here’s the deal.
SANDERS: You’re an honest guy. Why don’t you just tell the truth here? We all make mistakes.
BIDEN: I am telling the truth.
(BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)
BIDEN: And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time and I tried it a fourth time.
(END AUDIO TAPE)
SANDERS: Joe, let me repeat it again. I want you just to be straight with the American people. I am saying that you have been on the floor of the Senate time and time again, talking about the neeed to cut Social Security, Medicare and veterans’ programs. Is that not true?
BIDEN: That is not true.
(BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)
BIDEN: I meant veterans’ benefits, I meant every single, solitary thing in the government.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
BIDEN: Everything was on the table. I did not support any of those cuts in Social Security or in veterans’ benefits —
SANDERS: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Everything was on the table. You just said it, including in your judgment cuts to Social Security and veterans.
BIDEN: In order to get the kinds of changes we need on other things —
SANDERS: OK, Joe, then you just —
BIDEN: But we did not cut it —
SANDERS: I know because people like me helped stop that!
…
All that I would say to the American people — go to YouTube, it’s all over the place. Joe said it many, many times. And I’m surprised, you know, you can defend that or change your mind on it. But you can’t deny the reality.
Trump also pointed to Biden’s contradictions on fracking before he thanked Sanders for the ad and vowed never to cut Medicare or Social Security.
“So when I said last night he tried to cut Social Security, he said that he didn’t,” Trump said. “Just like he said, he never talked about fracking. Look at it, there it is. Thank you, Bernie. I appreciate it, Bernie. Bernie Sanders, everybody. The great Bernie Sanders.”
“As president, I will always protect your Medicare, and I will always protect your Social Security, OK?” he continued. “One of the issues most important to me is taking care of our great amazing veterans, and we have a lot of them here tonight.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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