President Biden rallied a crowd in Milwaukee Wednesday by citing former President Trump’s recent remarks suggesting he’s open to cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
“Just this week, Donald Trump said cuts to Social Security and Medicare are on the table. When asked if he’d change his position, he said quote, there’s a lot we can do in terms of cutting, tremendous amount of things we can do. End of quote,” Biden said.
“I want to assure you, I will never allow it to happen,” he added during a visit to the critical swing state of Wisconsin.
The Biden campaign has launched a full effort to highlight Trump’s comment to CNBC this week.
“First of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in term of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements,” Trump told CNBC. “Tremendous bad management of entitlements. There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do.”
“So, I don’t necessarily agree with the statement,” he added. The host asked if he had changed his outlook on how to handle entitlements so the U.S. isn’t “stuck at 120% debt-to-GDP forever.”
Biden vowed Wednesday to protect the entitlement programs.
“I won’t cut Social Security; I will not cut Medicare. Instead of cutting Social Security and Medicare to give tax breaks to the super wealthy, I’m going to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare to make the wealthy begin to pay their fair share,” Biden said.
He also bashed Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (R) while in his home state, hitting him for calling Social Security a “legal Ponzi scheme” during a radio show last year.
“Did you ever think you’d hear anybody say that? A Ponzi scheme? Give me a break,” Biden said.
The Biden campaign promptly dropped an ad with Trump’s comments and then launched an effort in battleground states to hold more than a dozen press conferences before Friday, all focused on entitlement programs, the campaign first told The Hill.
Biden has said he will protect entitlement programs and reiterated his vow to prevent cuts to them during his State of the Union address last week.
“Many of my friends on the other side of the aisle want to put Social Security on the chopping block,” Biden said in the address. “If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age, I will stop you.”
Biden’s trip to Milwaukee is part of his travel to swing states following the State of the Union. While there, he announced $3.3 billion in new funding for infrastructure projects to reconnect communities, including $36 million for Milwaukee’s Sixth Street Complete Streets Project.
Updated at 7:15pm EST.