SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Democratic candidate for president Joe Biden took sharp aim at President Trump during his appearances in Michigan on Friday, lambasting the president for his failure to condemn hate groups and for his repeated attacks on the Affordable Care Act.
Biden appeared alongside Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, taking time to commend the governor for her bravery and leadership in the face of danger. Last week, the FBI revealed they had foiled a scheme from an extremist paramilitary group to storm the state Capitol building and kidnap officials, including Whitmer.
"It's the sort of behavior you might expect from ISIS. It should shock the conscience of every American,” Biden said of the alleged plot. “And the failure to condemn these folks is stunning at the outset.”
Biden slammed President Trump for his rhetoric surrounding white supremacists, saying both his calls to “liberate Michigan” and repeated refusals to condemn hate groups are what fuel dangerous domestic terrorists.
“Hate never goes away, it hides,” Biden said. “We need to be clear from the president on down in this country: There is no place for hate in America.”
Much of the event focused on healthcare, to which both Biden and Whitmer told personal stories of their families’ respective health struggles.
In her introduction, Governor Whitmer hailed the former vice president as a “fighter who will expand and protect healthcare.”
“Joe Biden knows how to build bridges. He’ll bring us together and make healthcare more available for more Americans,” Whitmer said, adding: “We know that president trump isn't focused on finding common ground. He's been running on a scorched earth agenda for years.”
The governor also said she shares a personal connection with the former vice president: The brain cancer that took Beau Biden’s life in 2015 was the same kind that also took Whitmer’s mother.
Biden warned Michigan voters that President Trump wants to strip health insurance from tens of millions of Americans with preexisting conditions. Trump promises to protect the insurance eligibility of all Americans but in reality wants to scrap the 2010 Affordable Care Act, Biden said.
That law for the first time set a federal standard that requires insurers to offer health insurance to customers regardless of their health history.
Biden says Trump “can only see from his penthouse” in Manhattan and doesn’t see most Americans’ daily struggles.
A 2017 study from the Department of Health and Human Services found that as many as 133 million Americans could be defined as having a “preexisting” condition by the standards insurers used before the 2010 law.
Biden noted that the number could rise in the wake of the pandemic. Some patients who recover from COVID-19 have been found with lingering lung, heart or other organ damage.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.