Members of the audience at CNN’s Thursday town hall could be heard laughing when President Joe Biden appeared to lose his train of thought.
Biden was giving an answer to moderator Anderson Cooper about the Democrats’ plan to expand Medicare – making it so that the program would cover dental, vision and hearing – and he pivoted mid-sentence, apparently trying to reel himself back in. (RELATED: Biden Says ‘No’ To Manchin’s Proposed Work Requirement For The Child Tax Credit)
WATCH:
“One of the other things that Democrats are looking to do is to expand Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing as well,” Cooper began, asking whether those three items would survive the negotiations going on within the Democratic Party.
“That’s a reach. And the reason why it’s a reach, it’s not – I think it’s a good idea,” Biden replied, saying that he supported the idea but Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin opposed it. “As is I think Senator Sinema –”
“Opposed to all of them?” Cooper asked.
“Opposed to all three. Because they don’t want – he says he doesn’t want to further burden Medicare so that – because it will run out of its ability to maintain itself in the next number of years. There’s ways to fix that. But he’s not interested in that part either,” Biden continued, pausing briefly to defend Manchin.
“But look, Joe’s not a bad guy. He’s a friend. And he’s always at the end of the day come around and voted. But here’s the point. We’re in a situation now where if you are in a circumstance that you’re not able to provide – let me cut to the chase. I’m taking too long,” Biden said, seeming to lose his train of thought as he tried to get back to the topic at hand and prompting laughs from the audience.