60 Minutes: Trump goes full Tom Smykowski on "covering pre-existing conditions

 

So Donald Trump decided, against all sanity, to break his agreement with 60 Minutes and post the full, unedited, raw footage of his interview with Leslie Stahl.

I bravely watched it so you don't have to. Here's the full segment about the ACA and the Trump/GOP lawsuit to strike it down, set to be heard by the Supreme Court on November 10th:

(starting around 15 minutes in):

STAHL: "You promised that there was gonna be a new health package.

TRUMP: "Yeah."

STAHL: "You said it was gonna be great, you said it'll be ready, it'll be here in two weeks, it was gonna be like nothing you've ever seen before...and of course we haven't seen it...so why didn't you develop a health plan?"

TRUMP: "It is developed. It is fully developed, it's going to be announced very soon, when we see what happens with Obamacare, which is not good. And...when we see what happens with Obamacare.

STAHL: "But...if the Supreme Court...

TRUMP: "And it will be much less expensive than Obamacare, which is a disaster, and it will take care of people with pre-existing conditions."

STAHL: "But your plan was to repeal & replace...and if the Supreme Court finishes Obamacare, there will be all these people stranded."

TRUMP: "No there won't. We will make a deal, and we have a great healthcare plan...

STAHL: "But you keep saying that..."

TRUMP: "...with less expensive, much less expensive, and a much better plan."

STAHL: "Why haven't we seen it?"

TRUMP: "You have seen it! I've been putting out pieces all over the place. And we actually have plans! And we have...180 million people, right now, have a plan. And you haven't been watching. You haven't been watching."

STAHL: "But...what about the pre-existing...people with pre-existing conditions...if the Supreme Court...

TRUMP: "...are protected! Will be totally protected!"

STAHL: "But...how??"

TRUMP:  "They'll be protected!"

STAHL: "How?"

TRUMP: "I mean, people with pre-existing conditions are going to be protected..."

STAHL: "How?"

TRUMP: "...as they are now!"

STAHL: "How?"

TRUMP: "...In any plan we do, they will be protected. Leslie...people with pre-existing conditions will be always protected. Always"

STAHL: "But if the Supreme Court ends this...Obamacare..."

TRUMP: "...we'll have to see what happens! It's got a ways to go...we'll see what happens...I think it'll end...I hope that they end it! It'll be so good if they end it!"

STAHL: "But if they end it..."

TRUMP: "...because we will come up with a plan..."

STAHL: "Will?..."

TRUMP: "...yes, we will!"

STAHL: "...but you said..."

TRUMP: "We have large sections of it already done! And we've already come up with plans! Take a look at...your...various Secretaries! Various plans we've already come up with! And also...you know, a large part of this country is on private health insurance. 180 million people. And under that...Biden...he doesn't have any clue...but under that, 180 million people will lose their healthcare. And they'll go to socialized medine. And that's not gonna be acceptable. 180 million people, Leslie, will go to socialized medicine. It will all be...it will not e acceptable."

STAHL: "...and if the Affordable Care Act is determined to be unconstitutional..."

TRUMP: "...then we're gonna have a new, and it's gonna be very good, and..."

STAHL: "But you keep saying that and you don't show it to us, and so people with pre-existing conditions..."

TRUMP: "We've come up many plans, Leslie! And they're already in existence. I'll tell you what...after this interview, I will show you short term, long term, longer term, I'll show you different plans! We've come up with many plans! And we've cut the individual mandate out. You know, the individual mandate is done. That was the worst part of Obamacare, it's gone."

STAHL: "OK...on all of that...I grant you...but if...if there's no plan...a replacement plan...and the Supreme Court says that Obamacare goes away...people with pre-existing conditions will be stranded. That's just a fact!"

TRUMP: "It's new! A new plan will happen!"

STAHL: "But when? "Will?'"

TRUMP: "We will do anything...will? It is!..we will do anything on no plan unless we have pre-existing conditions covered. And the individual mandate, which you don't want to mention, was terminated. It was terminated! Individual mandate was terminated. That was the biggest thing that happened...and that actually makes Obamacare...not Obamacare. Because under that, you would pay a fortune for the privilege of not having to pay for bad health insurance! We got it terminated. Terminated! Through the legislature side. Done! That means Obamacare is no longer Obamacare. We got rid of the most important element of Obamacare and it was the worst element of Obamacare that nobody wanted, nobody liked! So Obamacare was essentially terminated as we know it. Now, we have the carcass of Obamacare..."

STAHL: "But part of the carcass is..."

TRUMP: "Well...Leslie, we managed it well. You know, I had a choice to make. When we get rid of the individual mandate...nobody thought we could do it, and we did it...do I manage the remainder of whatever's left of this whole thing called Obamacare, which is no good, do I manage it well or do I manage it badly? If I manage it well...maybe politically that's not good. I decided to manage it well."

STAHL: "But...do you want to leave it?"

TRUMP: "No, I don't want to leave it. I wanna see what happens. Here's what happens...we may be stuck with it if we lose in the Supreme Court...in which case, we've wasted a lot of words. If we win, we will come up with--and we will do that--a much better healthcare for much less money while always protecting people with pre-existing conditions."

(after that it collapses into Trump's garbage claims about Biden being corrupt, bla bla bla)

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