Second 2020 Presidential Debate: on Health Care

Donald Trump: People with masks can still catch coronavirus

Q: At the event [in Oct. 2020] before you tested positive, there was an indoor reception. People were not wearing masks. Shouldn't the White House know better than to hold an event like that?

TRUMP: Well, they do a lot of testing in the White House; they test everybody including me. As far as the mask is concerned, I'm okay with masks. I tell people, "wear a mask." But just the other day, they came out with a statement that 85% of the people that wear masks catch it.

Q: It didn't say that. I know that study.

TRUMP: That's what I heard. Hey, I'm President. I can't be in a basement. I have to be out.

Q: You can see people with a mask, though, right?

TRUMP: I can, but people with masks are catching it all the time. Look at the Governor of Virginia, he was known for a mask. If you look at Thom Tillis, a great guy, he always had a mask, and they caught it.

Donald Trump: I put in travel ban to China very early, and Europe too

TRUMP: I did put it in very early. Joe Biden was two months behind me, and he called me xenophobic and racist, because I put it in. And it turned out that I was 100% right. I also put it on Europe, very early, because I saw there was a lot of infection in Europe. The news doesn't get out the right answer, because I put on a travel ban far earlier than Dr. Fauci thought it was necessary. I was actually the only one that wanted to put it on. I put it on at the end of January. When I put on the travel ban Joe Biden, and others, said, "This is ridiculous. You don't do that." Well, Dr. Fauci said, I saved thousands and thousands of lives.

BIDEN: All the way back in the beginning of February, I argued that we should be keeping people in China.In February, I did a piece for USA Today saying, "This is a serious problem." Trump denied it. He said it wasn't.

Donald Trump: Replace ObamaCare with less expensive but great healthcare

TRUMP: We got rid of the individual mandate on ObamaCare. By the way, we're always protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and I can't say that more strongly. The problem with ObamaCare, it's not good. We'd like to terminate it, and we want a much less expensive healthcare that's a much better healthcare.

Q: You repealed, but you haven't replaced. You had the Senate and House in Republican hands, and there is not a replacement yet.

TRUMP: Look, we had both houses and what did we do? We got rid of the individual mandate. That went through the legislature.

Q: But the promise was repeal and replace.

TRUMP: We would like to replace it with something that's much less expensive and much better. We will always protect people with preexisting conditions.

Joe Biden: I wanted to keep people in China in early 2020 pandemic

BIDEN: I suggested that we should be seeking access to the source of the problem. Trump never pushed that.

Q [to TRUMP]: Why did you only put in place a travel ban from China?

TRUMP: I put it in very early. Joe Biden was two months behind me, and he called me xenophobic and racist.

BIDEN: All the way back in the beginning of February, I argued that we should be keeping people in China. There were 44 people on the ground [in China]. All those 44 people came home [as US citizens despite the ban on non-citizens]. In addition to that, I pointed out that I thought in February, I did a piece for USA Today saying, "This is a serious problem." Trump denied it. He said it wasn't. He missed enormous opportunities and kept saying things that weren't true. "It's going to go away by Easter"; "When the summer comes, it's all going to go away like a miracle." He's still saying those things.

Joe Biden: I started wearing masks in March; Trump still questions them

BIDEN: Not back then. From March on, I stopped doing big meetings, I started wearing masks. The head of the CDC said, "While we're waiting for a vaccine"--he held up a mask--"You wear this mask, you'll save more lives between now and the end of the year than if we had a vaccine." If we wore masks, we could save 100,000 lives. And what's Trump doing? Nothing. He's still not wearing masks.

Q [to TRUMP]: At White House events, people were not wearing masks.

TRUMP: Well, they do a lot of testing in the White House. I'm okay with masks. I tell people, "wear a mask." But just the other day, they came out with a statement that 85% of the people that wear masks catch it.

Q: It didn't say that. I know that study.

TRUMP: That's what I heard. Hey, I'm President. I have to be out.

Q: You can see people with a mask, though.

TRUMP: I can, but people with masks are catching it all the time.

Joe Biden: Pre-existing conditions are in jeopardy from Supreme Court

BIDEN: I think that healthcare overall is very much in jeopardy as a consequence of the President's going to go directly after this election directly to the Supreme Court within a month to try to get ObamaCare wiped out after 10 million people have already lost their insurance from their employer and wants to take 20 million people out of the system as well, plus 100 million people with pre-existing conditions.

TRUMP: We got rid of the individual mandate on ObamaCare, and now you could actually say it's not ObamaCare because you had to pay a fortune for the privilege of not having to pay for bad health insurance, so we got rid of that. By the way, we're always protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and I can't say that more strongly. The problem with ObamaCare, it's not good. We'd like to terminate it, and we want a much less expensive healthcare that's a much better healthcare.

Joe Biden: Trump left rules to states; I want national standards

BIDEN: At a time when the science was saying, and his key people, Dr. Fauci were saying, "You should be taking these precautions."

TRUMP: Dr. Fauci said, "Don't wear a mask," right? Then he changed his mind.

BIDEN: Look, you and I know, the words of a president matter. No matter whether they're good, bad, or indifferent, they matter. And when a president doesn't wear a mask or makes fun of folks like me, when I was wearing a mask for a long time, then people say, "Well, it mustn't be that important." There should be a national standard. Remember what the president said to the governors, "Well, they're on their own; it's not my responsibility. The governors can do what they need to do." It is a presidential responsibility to lead, and he didn't do that. He didn't talk about what needed to be done because he kept worrying, in my view, about the stock market. His barometer of success to the economy is the market.

Joe Biden: Depending on vaccine, think about making it mandatory

BIDEN: It depends on the state of the nature of the vaccine when it comes out, and how it's being distributed. But I would think that we should be talking about, depending on the continuation of the spread of the virus, we should be thinking about making it mandatory.

Q [to TRUMP]: You have been having rallies despite being exposed?

TRUMP: As President, I have to be out there. I can't be in a basement. I want to see everybody. And I also say to people all the time, it's risky doing it. [But the White House tests everyone regularly].

BIDEN: Before I came up here, I took another test. I've been taking them every day. If I had not passed that test, I didn't want to come here and expose anybody. And I just think it's just decency, to be able to determine whether or not you're clear. I'm less concerned about me, than the people working in the Secret Service and the camera staff.