Today, ahead of Vice President Pence’s visit to Maine, the Maine Democratic Party hosted a virtual roundtable with Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, Attorney General Aaron Frey and Maine Senate President Troy Jackson to discuss the Trump administration’s failed pandemic response and broken health care promises..

You can watch a recording of the full event here or read excerpts from participants below:

“As a member of Congress I’ve seen it firsthand––their unwillingness to fund the important measures that we’ve needed, whether it’s to take care of people’s health, to reopen our schools, to keep our economy going, or to make sure we had adequate testing and tracing,” said Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. “They’ve fought us every step of the way. They haven’t told the American people the truth, they’ve completely mishandled this, and as a result we still have a country with numbers going in the wrong direction and an economy that is continuing to be challenged.”

“There is one action that the Trump administration has taken in this COVID-19 crisis: that’s to try and strike down the only access to health care that tens of thousands of Mainers have. The Trump administration is in court right now trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act,” said Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey. “[They have] no plan whatsoever on how to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. Their only response is to say ‘Let’s get rid of the Affordable Care Act’ –– and they have no replacement plan.”

“America has been knocked down, there’s no doubt about it,” said Maine Senate President Troy Jackson. “Millions of people have lost their jobs, there’s people who have lost their health care, small businesses that have closed, and there’s no plan on how to help these people. It’s just a complete failure of leadership to do anything.”

“We face multiple crises as a nation right now––the global health pandemic, the economic downturn, systemic racism, and a climate crisis,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “Right now, we have a president who ignores all of these and has no plan. Trump isn’t fighting for working families, he’s looking out for his rich friends and Wall Street interests.”

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