CNBC anchor Joe Kernan questioned former President Donald Trump on his policies regarding spending and entitlements, suggesting there might be similarities between Trump’s views and those of President Joe Biden. Kernan specifically asked if Trump’s outlook on handling entitlements, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, had changed.
In response, Trump rejected the notion that there’s little that can be done in terms of cutting entitlements. He expressed openness to “cutting” entitlement programs and criticized the management of such programs.
The Biden campaign quickly seized on Trump’s comments, sharing a clip online with the caption “Not on my watch.” White House spokesman Andrew Bates emphasized President Biden’s commitment to opposing benefit cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
Trump’s remarks sparked national headlines, as they appeared to contradict his previous assurances to protect entitlements, a promise he made during his presidency. The Biden campaign countered, asserting that Trump’s comments raised concerns about potential cuts to essential programs.
“It’s almost a third rail of politics. And we’ve got a, what, a 33, $34 trillion total debt built up and then very little we can do in terms of cutting spending or discretionary is not going to help. Have you changed your your outlook on how to handle entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid? Mr. President, it seems like something has to be done or else we’re going to be stuck at 120% of debt to GDP forever,” Kernan asked Trump.
“So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements, tremendous bad management of entitlements. There’s tremendous amounts of things, numbers of things you can do. So I don’t, you know, necessarily agree with the statement,” Trump replied.
Trump’s reply was quickly pounced on by the Biden campaign, which shared the clip online and captioned, “Not on my watch.”
Trump’s campaign spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, countered by stating that Trump had fulfilled his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare during his first term and would continue to do so. She also asserted that Biden’s immigration policies posed a greater threat to the stability of Social Security and Medicare.
Not on my watch. https://t.co/RAHjjUlGDa
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 11, 2024
