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On
Friday, Warren unveiled details of a $20.5 trillion Medicare for
All plan she wants to implement to extend government healthcare
coverage to all Americans. The Biden campaign said the plan
relied on "mathematical gymnastics" and would raise taxes.
Warren, speaking to reporters in Iowa on Friday, retorted that
her proposal and its costs were authenticated by outside
experts. If anyone wants to defend insurer and drug company
profits, the senator from Massachusetts added, "I think they're
running in the wrong presidential primary."
Biden wrote https://medium.com/@JoeBiden/i-have-fought-for-the-democratic-party-my-whole-career-2ca4a2dac271
online on Tuesday that attacks like Warren's "reflect an angry
unyielding viewpoint that has crept into our politics" and
"condescending to the millions of Democrats" who disagree.
"It's representative of an elitism that working and middle class
people do not share," Biden wrote. "'We know best; you know
nothing'. 'If you were only as smart as I am you would agree
with me.'"
A spokesman for the Warren campaign declined to comment on
Biden's remarks.
Biden's post, on a website known as Medium where Warren is known
for posting exhaustive descriptions of her policy plans,
represents a new line of attack just 90 days before Americans
start to weigh in on which Democrat should be nominated to face
off against Republican President Donald Trump in November 2020.
Polls show Biden and Warren are locked in a tight battle for
voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that hold their
nominating contests first, in February.
Biden, a former vice president born in working-class Scranton,
Pennsylvania, has framed his campaign around everyday people and
embraced the moniker "Middle Class Joe" though he is now a man
of means and his campaign regularly holds high-dollar
fundraisers. He has previously jabbed Warren by telling voters
"we're not electing a planner" while also pushing her to offer
more details on her plans.
Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor, has pushed for
policies, from taxes on wealth to Medicare for All, that some
regard as "progressive" or relatively far to the left.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York; Additional reporting
by Joseph Ax; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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