AP Photo / Morry Gash, Pool
“They’re coming for you.” That was the dire message Senator Kamala Harris shared with us in the vice-presidential debate.
And she is right. If you’re one of the millions of people who lives with a pre-existing condition, if you benefited from the expansion of Medicaid, if you rely on the Affordable Care Act for coverage, the Trump Administration is coming for you. They are coming for your health care.
Right now, Trump and Pence are trying to strike down the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court, and if they succeed, they’ll take away coverage for millions of Americans and protections for over 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions – in the middle of a pandemic. It’s cruel and shameful. This Administration has no plan to replace the law – four years after promising they would. This obsession with striking down the ACA coupled with President Trump’s disastrous handling of the coronavirus crisis is a dangerous combination that will cost countless lives.
More than 210,000 Americans have lost their lives to this virus already, more than 7 million are infected, and nearly 30 million are on some kind of unemployment. And we know Black women are disproportionately bearing the brunt of this pandemic. Yet, this Administration still does not have a plan to contain coronavirus and has the nerve to try to take away health care during it.
Even after being part of a super-spreader event at the White House, Vice President Pence confidently defended the Trump Administration’s disastrous handling of this pandemic with a smile on his face. But no matter how confident he is – or how often he attempted to misplain – it doesn’t change the fact that 210,000 people are dead and millions of people are struggling across the country.
If the Trump Administration respected us, they would have told us the truth from the beginning. Instead, they did exactly what we saw Vice President Pence do throughout the debate. They dodged questions, they changed the topic, they downplayed the severity of the virus, they lied to us.
I’ve had enough – and I hope you’re fed up too. As Senator Harris put it, the Trump Administration has forfeited their right to reelection. They had no plan to combat this virus. They still don’t. This is the greatest failure by any American presidency in our history.
The choice couldn’t be more clear, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. For the millions of Black women who suffered at the hands of this president, I’m proudly supporting the Biden-Harris campaign and making a plan to make Donald Trump a one-term president. Got to iwillvote.com to join me.
Alderwoman Jameesha Harris is social justice, healthcare equity and economic justice advocate. Jameesha has been recognized as the “Top 20 under 40” in New Bern’ Sun Journal. She is a proud mom and wife.
