>> Trump loves tapping into his fake populism to appeal to voters when he's in campaign
mode. And honestly, last night, the first night of the Republican National Convention
was no exception. He was bragging about how he's really given it to the big pharmaceutical
companies. He's really holding them accountable.
But in reality, he's all show and there's no substance behind what he's saying. So Trump
actually held a highly touted signing ceremony on July 24. For four executive orders aimed
at lowering drug prices, which is a very key issue for voters ahead of this general election.
So here's a video showing him signing those executive orders in a boastful way and then
I'll tell you what happened in the aftermath.
>> Today I'm taking a bold and historic or dramatic action to reduce the price of prescription
drugs for American patients and American seniors. Previous administrations did nothing, absolutely
nothing. And I'm looking for help for our great seniors, especially in particular, and
that's what we're doing today you'll hear something which will be very shocking.
So we're doing things that nobody thought could be done. Unfortunately, we've been waiting
for Congress to take action for many decades to reduce drug prices for more than just a
small handful of people. But even this small handful of people never get price reductions,
and I'm unwilling to wait any longer.
Therefore today I'm signing four sweeping executive orders that will lead to massive
reduction in drug costs, massive. They represent the most far reaching prescription drug reforms
ever issued by a president, nothing even close. The Obama Biden administration pledged to
end this unfairness and allowed drug importation but they never got it done.
They were unable to get it done, they didn't get a lot of things done. But under my administration,
we're standing up to the lobbyists and special interest and fighting back against a rigged
system. >> So what exactly happened after that mouth
breeder shared information about his executive orders in that press conference?
Turns out nothing. So on the most consequential of the orders to lower certain Medicare drug
prices writes The Hill by tieing prices to those paid in other countries. Trump delayed
the order for one month until August 24 saying he wanted to give the pharmaceutical industry
time to make a deal.
Well, it's August 25, meaning that date has come and gone, and so what's the deal? Has
there been a deal? Are pharmaceutical companies going to lower prices for US consumers to
mirror what people in Europe are paying or what people in Canada are paying? Doesn't
look like it.
So the order in question is called a most favored nation clause and is aimed at lowering
the prices for a subset of drugs paid for by Medicare to be in line with the lower prices
paid in other developed countries. And nothing has happened. That date has come and gone.
They have not lowered the prices. But did that stop Donald Trump from bragging about
his executive orders during the first night of the Republican National Convention? Of
course not. >> We've cut drug prices first time in 51
years. We got drug prices down, now I'm really doing I did a favored nations clause.
Meaning, we pay the same price as the lowest country that has the best deal. The companies
are going crazy, the drug companies, they're taking ads on me. I said, I went to Mark Meadows,
I said, Mark, they're killing me. They're spending, they have nothing but cash, okay?
Big Pharma they call it for a reason.
Wrong, the pharmaceutical companies have not done anything. Pharma did not say what proposals
it's putting forward instead, but it supports a market based competitive solution. Whatever
the hell that means, we know what it means. It means that they're not gonna do anything,
they're not gonna lower the prices.
Here's a Pharma spokesperson speaking to The Hill saying that the most favored nation executive
order is an irresponsible and unworkable policy. That will give foreign politicians a say in
how America provides access to treatments and cures for seniors and people struggling
with devastating diseases. Now, if I'm not mistaken, Emma, this has nothing to do with
foreigners.
This has everything to do with American citizens who demand to not be forced to pay more for
pharmaceutical drugs compared to other countries. But that's a nice attempt to twist what this
is really about. Okay, so pharmaceutical companies garbage, let's just get that out of the way.
But more importantly Donald Trump, literally not doing anything to lower drug prices and
still bragging about it like the fake populace that he is during the convention.
Amazing. >> It's kind of a scary situation though because
while he's bragging and lying about lowering drug prices. Joe Biden and the Democrats,
they just did basically as Marianne Williamson put it a long Marriott ad for their convention.
I put it as a bad American Idol episode. So, it was all schmaltzyness without any policy,
and then you have someone just claiming that they did policies and they didn't do At least
people are hearing that he's trying to lower drug prices.
I felt this shift in the past few days, few weeks, about Trump and Biden, that's kind
of scaring me. I mean, it's not like some sort of cosmic shift, but I guess in the discourse
that I am feeling less good about this polling lead. And things like that scare me because
that's just gonna go under the radar.
Obviously Trump has continuously lied about these executive orders. His eviction moratorium
executive order was just telling Mnuchin and other government entities to look at how they
could stop evictions. So that wasn't the case at all. So all of his executive orders are
what he does best and also the worst parts of him.
Marketing! That's all he cares about. And all you need to do though is market yourself
effectively enough. I'm skeptical that that can overcome the material conditions for people
on the ground and the fact that over 170,000 people have died of COVID. But I don't know
Biden is the other candidate, and that freaks me out.
>> Well, look what terrifies me is is precisely what you just mentioned in the beginning of
your argument about framing and where the attention is in campaigning. So Trump as stupid
as he is, he does understand marketing, and he also knows that Americans are suffering
right now. Especially right now with the economic situation which has been compounded by this
pandemic.
And so he speaks to those issues, and he lies about it, just like he lied about it back
in 2016. But what I worry about and I think this is what you were getting at with the
Marriott commercial analogy. Is that Biden seems to think, and his campaign seem to think,
all they need to do is show Biden is an empathetic person and boom, that's all you need to do,
Biden will win.
We've played that game before and I don't think it's necessarily gonna win. And I think
we need to not allow Democratic voters to become comfortable with this lead, because
we're gonna find ourselves in another 2016 type situation on election night. I am worried
about that.