Banner day for protesters
“I shouldn’t say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia, because you have better health care than we do,” Trump said. “We’re going to have great health care very soon.”
The line drew a laugh from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a proponent of universal coverage.
“Let us move to a Medicarefor-all system that does what every other major country on the Earth does — guaranteed health care to all people at a fraction of the cost per capita that we spend,” Sanders said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “All in with Chris Hayes.” “Thank you, Mr. President, we’ll quote you on the floor of the Senate.”
Protesters decried the vote, and the bill’s biggest cheerleader.
“This illegitimate President has waged a war on the American people, and he’s trying to strip us of our most basic and fundamental rights,” said Public Advocate Letitia James, who joined demonstrators at the Intrepid ahead of Trump’s visit.
The rally was organized by several grass-roots organizations including Million Hoodies, Working Families Party and the Women’s March.
Amid the noise of the protest, well-dressed guests invited to the Intrepid were escorted onto the ship. They stood in stark contrast to the protesters just blocks away.
A woman in a long blue gown declined to give her name but said she supported the protest.
“I do support what they’re doing,” she said. “I will say that.”
Among the angry was Chris Mohr, a 63-year-old wedding officiant, who considers himself a never-Trump Republican.
“I despised him from the first moment he started attacking John McCain for his military record,” Mohr said. “I don’t think we should have someone who might start World War III, and it seems he’s heading in that direction. As a guy in his 60s, I’m going to be facing at least a fivefold increase in my health care premium. I think the Republicans are going down a rabbit hole with him.”
Mohr said the country would have been better off with the alternative.
“I think it would have been better with Hillary (Clinton),” Mohr said.
Trump quickly escaped the city after the Intrepid event, for the relative quiet of his golf club in Bedminister, N.J., where he plans on spending the weekend.