WASHINGTON (AP) — At least one mystery about President Joe BidenThe presidential candidate’s often complicated answers during the presidential debate have been resolved.
Early in the debate, the 81-year-old Democrat was asked about the national debt and ended his meandering answer with the declaration, “We finally defeated Medicare.”
That wasn’t what Biden wanted to say about the popular program that provides health insurance to older Americans.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre clarified the president’s intentions on Wednesday, saying, “He meant to say he defeated the pharmaceutical industry.”
Biden tried to point to one of his legislative accomplishments: that Medicare now has the ability to negotiate the prices it pays pharmaceutical companies for certain prescription drugs, helping to reduce federal spending.
The president’s lackluster response has raised broader concerns about his ability to compete with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the November election.
Trump picked up on Biden’s response and replied that “he’s destroying Medicare.”
