Former vice president Joe Biden attacked Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), comparing their support of Medicare for All to President Donald Trump's "game."
Biden accused his top Democratic primary rivals of papering over the details of replacing the private health insurance market with a government-run system, alluding to Warren's refusal to admit that such a move would require tax hikes on the middle class. He likened those tactics to President Trump's approach to governance and the campaign trail.
"The last thing the Democrats should be doing is playing Trump's game and trying to con the American people to think this is easy," Biden told a press gaggle on Wednesday. "There's nothing easy about it. If you're gonna do it, tell us how you're gonna do it. It's called truth in speaking."
Biden's comments came after Tuesday night's debate, where for the first time, most candidates on the stage set their sights on Warren rather than the former vice president. Biden has stepped up his attacks on the Massachusetts senator as she threatens to overtake him as Democratic frontrunner in national and state polls.
Biden criticized Warren's plan to institute a costly version of Medicare for All, while noting that her proposed "wealth tax" will not come anywhere close to funding the cost of providing government health care for more than 330 million people. He also said that Sanders's proposed tax hikes will not even "pay for half" of his version of the plan.
"It's fascinating that the person who has a plan for everything has no plan for the single most consequential issue in this election and in the minds of the American people across the board," Biden said of Warren, adding that she has yet to be "candid" about how she will pay for Medicare for All.
"I'm hoping that Senator Warren gets to the point that after months and months and months [she] will tell you how she's going to pay for this plan," Biden said.
Warren has repeatedly dodged questions on whether she will raise taxes on the middle class to pay for Medicare for All.