Kamala Harris: If you have pre-existing conditions, Trump and Pence are "coming for you"
08 October 2020
Sen. Kamala Harris said at Wednesday's vice presidential debate that the Trump administration does not have a plan to protect health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, looking into the camera and declaring: "If you have a pre-existing condition — heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer — they're coming for you.
Why it matters: The Biden campaign has consistently sought to make the Trump administration-backed lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act — which protects coverage for pre-existing conditions — a core election message, particularly as the U.S. continues to struggle to control the pandemic. Health care has been proven to be one of the issues that resonates most with voters.
What she's saying: "If you have a pre-existing condition — heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer — they're coming for you. If you love someone who has a pre-existing condition, they're coming for you. If you're under the age of 26 on your parents' coverage, they're coming for you."
- Vice President Pence responded that the administration does have a plan for people with pre-existing conditions, but did not specify what it is.
- Worth noting: While unveiling his vision for health care in his second term, President Trump last month signed an executive order that he claimed will protect coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. But executive orders do not have the weight of legislation.
Go deeper:Trump's pre-existing conditions executive order is empty
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.