*He can interrupt people all he wants to without pushback because he’s the so-called POTUS, but not Ellesia Blaque of greater Philadelphia. Not last night.
The assistant professor of literature at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania was one of the few masked, socially-distant audience members in attendance at President’s Trump’s town hall moderated by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. Blaque told the president that she was born with sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that qualifies as a pre-existing condition under the Affordable Care Act. She reminded Trump that “Obamacare” assured that folks with pre-existing conditions would not get charged more by insurers. But she’s still shelling out over $7,000 a year in copays due to her condition.
Her exchange with Trump began: “Mr. President, I was born with a disease called sarcoidosis, and from the day I was born, I was considered uninsurable. That disease started in my skin, moved to my eyes, into my optic nerves, and when I went to graduate school, into my brain.”
Blaque told Trump: “Should preexisting conditions, which ObamaCare brought to fruition, be removed…”
“No,” Trump began while she was still talking.
“Please stop and let me finish my question, sir. Should that be removed, within a 36 to 72-hour period, without my medication, I will be dead,” she continued. “And I want to know what it is you’re going to do to assure that people like me who work hard, we do everything we’re supposed to do, can stay insured. It’s not my fault that I was born with this disease. It’s not my fault that I’m a Black woman and in the medical community I’m minimized and not taken seriously.”
Watch Blaque’s entire moment below:
Trump also addressed questions about the country’s systemic racism and disproportionate police brutality against Black Americans. On both issues, he basically pivoted to defending police officers. Regarding his response to the pandemic, he denied downplaying the virus, as evidenced by his own words in the tapes provided by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward for his new Trump biography, “Rage.”
“I actually, in many ways, I up-played it, in terms of action,” Trump said. “My action was very strong.”
The lies just keep coming. Watch them exit his mouth below:
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