Democratic presidential candidate John Delaney challenged democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to a debate on Sunday after the 29-year-old former bartender mocked Delaney, who is a successful businessman and former Democratic Congressman.
Delaney slammed the idea of government-run healthcare during a speech on Sunday at the California Democratic Convention in San Francisco.
“Medicare for all may sound good but it’s actually not good policy nor is it good politics,” Delaney said. “This is called the battle of ideas my friends.”
“We should have universal health care, but it shouldn’t be the kind of health care that kicks 150 million Americans off their health care,” Delaney continued. “That’s not smart policy. I want everyone to have health care, but it’s got to be a plan that works for every American.”
The Democrat audience booed loudly after each statement from Delaney, and soon, the leader of the far-left chimed in on Twitter.
“Since there’s so many people running for President (& not enough for Senate), instead of obsessing over who‘s a ‘frontrunner,’ maybe we can start w some general eliminations,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “This awful, untrue line got boo’ed for a full minute. John Delaney, thank you but please sashay away.”
In a subsequent tweet, Ocasio-Cortez wrote: “Medicare for All IS sound policy — one may disagree w/ it, but plenty of other countries have single payer + better outcomes than the US. M4A IS good politics — it polls VERY well in swing states. ‘Third-Way’ (aka lobbyist-backed Dems) WILL lose the presidency to Trump.”
Delaney responded in a tweet challenging Ocasio-Cortez to a debate, writing: “Hey @AOC, we have the same goal, universal healthcare for everyone, we just have different ways of getting there. Healthcare is the #1 issue for voters, so let’s debate the way forward. Any show of your choosing. Healthcare is too important for tweets, we need real discussion.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who has a history of shying away from debates by playing the victim card, did not immediately respond to Delaney’s challenge.