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- President Donald Trump appeared at an ABC News town hall Tuesday night in which he faced questions from multiple voters.
- At one point, Trump started talking about Ellesia Blaque, a Philadelphia assistant professor with pre-existing conditions, who was asking a question about Obamacare.
- When he did, she immediately closed it, saying, “Please stop and let me finish my question, sir.”
- Trump was also confronted in town hall Tuesday night over his response to the coronavirus pandemic, racial justice protests, immigration and more.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
A voter shut down President Donald Trump when he began disrupting her during an ABC News town hall Tuesday night.
ABC News identified the voter as Ellesia Blaque, an assistant professor from Philadelphia who voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
At city hall, Blaque said she was born with a disease called sarcoidosis and began asking if Trump would make sure she remained covered by health insurance as he has been under the Affordable Care Act, the law also known as Obamacare.
She said, “Should pre-existing conditions, which Obamacare brought to fruition, be eliminated without …”
“No,” Trump said.
“Please stop and let me finish my question, sir,” replied Blaque.
—ABC News (@ABC) September 16, 2020
Blaque continued: “If that goes away, within a period of 36 to 72 hours without my medication I would be dead. And I want to know what you are going to do to ensure that people like me work hard, we do everything that is supposed to. what we should do, we can stay insured.
“It is not my fault that I was born with this disease. It is not my fault that I am a black woman and in the medical community they minimize me and do not take me seriously.
The president replied, “First of all, they take it seriously. I hope they do. And we are not going to hurt anything that has to do with pre-existing conditions. We are not going to hurt pre-existing conditions. And, in fact, quite the opposite. “.
Trump went on to say that he was working to replace Obamacare with his own unspecified health plan and that people with pre-existing conditions would be covered.
ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, who moderated the city council, called the president and said his administration had been trying to dismantle Obamacare but had not found a viable alternative that would protect people with pre-existing conditions under the law.
Obamacare was the US government’s first program to ensure that people with pre-existing medical conditions could receive health insurance and pay the same standard premiums as healthy people.
The Trump administration has been challenging Obamacare in court. In June, she asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the plan.
The Republican Party has tried to pass its own health insurance program through Congress, but to no avail.
The Trump administration has also offered alternative plans to Obamacare, but one of those top alternatives does not cover pre-existing conditions.
Last month, Trump said he could invoke executive action to make sure health insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions, falsely claiming it has “never been done before.”
In town hall Tuesday night, Trump also grappled with his response to the coronavirus pandemic, racial justice protests, immigration, and more.
A black voter also asked Trump if he knew how “deaf” his slogan “Make America Great Again” was to the African American community, to which the president responded by touting the economic record of his administration and saying that it had benefited African Americans. .
Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham, who is a strong supporter of the president, said later on her show that Trump was “ambushed” at City Hall. He also tweeted that the forum was a “total configuration. “
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