(USNewsMag.com) – After former President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that he may consider cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits, his campaign had to go into damage control as President Joe Biden immediately seized upon the opportunity to appeal to voters.
Trump called into CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday, March 11th, and suggested that he would make cuts to the programs if re-elected, which could dissuade retired and disabled workers from supporting the former president, an angle Biden will surely play upon. In response to a question, Trump told anchor Joe Kernen a lot could be done “in terms of entitlements,” which he said are badly managed, and that a number of things could be changed to remedy the situation, such as making cuts. He also suggested that the Biden administration would “end up weakening Social Security because the country is weak.”
The former president’s re-election campaign went into damage control by publishing a press release clarifying that Trump’s remarks were actually about “protecting” Social Security and Medicare entitlements and getting rid of “waste and fraud.”
With equal haste, Biden also jumped on the remarks, addressing them right away while speaking to voters in New Hampshire. He told his audience that Trump said cutting entitlement programs was on the table, vowing to protect the programs, which over 70 million people depend on. Biden went further and promised to “strengthen” these programs and “make the wealthy… pay their fair share.”
When reporters from Business Insider reached out to Trump’s campaign for a comment, they emailed back a statement claiming that he “delivered on his promise” to protect entitlement programs “in his first term” and that he “will continue” to do so in a second term. They added that Biden is the “only candidate who poses a threat” to entitlement programs, noting that “millions of illegal aliens” on the president’s watch will result in the collapse of such programs.
Medicare and Social Security have long been debated and contentious for both Republicans and Democrats. It’s a touchy subject because millions of Americans are now dependent on such programs.
Last year, Trump urged the GOP to leave the programs alone, warning them that not “a single penny” should be cut from the programs under any circumstances.
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