President Donald Trump blasted Democratic presidential candidates Thursday night for saying at the party’s second night of debate that their health care plans would cover undocumented immigrants.
“All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare. How about taking care of American Citizens first!? That’s the end of that race!” he tweeted.
The tweet came amid a number of bilateral meetings that the president participated as part of the G20 gathering in Osaka, Japan. He was on his way to a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel when the tweet was posted, later telling reporters he had been able to offer commentary because he had passed a television on his way to the sitdown.
“They have a debate going on, they had the first debate last night, perhaps you saw it, it wasn’t very exciting I can tell you that,” he said. “And they have another one going on today, they definitely have plenty of candidates. That’s about it. So I look forward to spending time with you rather than watching that.”
Trump briefly tweeted about the first debate on Wednesday night, en route to Japan, calling it “BORING!” on Twitter and tweeted criticism of NBC and MSNBC over a technical production issue that occurred in the second hour of the debate when moderators Rachel Maddow and Chuck Todd began asking questions.
Those Wednesday tweets came minutes after Trump, who had deplaned from Air Force One in Alaska en route to Japan, greeted U.S. troops there, telling them he had chosen to speak to them instead of watching the debate.
He later shared a video montage of his brief visit in Anchorage on Twitter and an edited clip of a video Time magazine shared of its 2018 issue, “How Trumpism Outlasts Trump.” Trump’s edited version zoomed into the cover and showed Trump election yard signs and election years through 2048.
On Thursday morning, Trump continued to lampoon the first of the two debates by tweeting a mock video of the stage that included a silhouette of himself suddenly emerging — set to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.”
The 10 candidates on stage for the second debate Thursday are former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigeg, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang.