MSNBC guest dismisses health care as a “non sequitur” in Supreme Court hearings, while Trump administration seeks to throw out Affordable Care Act
National Review editor Rich Lowry calls it “political,” says Amy Coney Barrett won’t strike down ACA — despite Trump’s promise that his Supreme Court appointments would do so
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From the October 12, 2020, edition of MSNBC Live with Katy Tur
FMR. SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D-MO): There are a couple of facts the Republicans can't avoid. Number one, Trump said he was going to appoint somebody to overturn the ACA. Number two, you don't protect preexisting conditions with fairy dust. They have no plan. And number three, the ACA is in front of the Supreme on November the 10th. This makes this a very powerful political argument, and the Democrats were very disciplined today, and I really hope they stay disciplined in the next two days.
CHUCK TODD (GUEST ANCHOR): Rich Lowry, we've talked about the issue of health care, it's been sort of an issue that has been a problem for Republicans politically. Do you see this becoming more of a political problem as these hearings go on?
RICH LOWRY (EDITOR, NATIONAL REVIEW): Well, I'd underline the word ‘political.’ I think all the health care talk we heard today scored points against President Trump, scored points against the Trump administration not having a plan, protecting people with preexisting conditions — scored zero points, really against Judge Barrett.
The ACA suit is very unlikely to succeed. There's some legal analysts, actually, think it'll go down nine to nothing. Judge Barrett herself precipitated (sic) in a moot court where all eight judges, including her, found against this lawsuit. So the extent we know anything about her view of the merits of this particular suit, it suggests that she won't be on board.
So, I see the health care attack really as a non sequitur in terms of stopping this nomination, or scoring points against Barrett. They're a great political issue, and they're a great campaign issue. So maybe, since there's zero chance really of stopping Barrett, maybe it's best just to make that political case with a view to the election.