"He rolled out his Great American Health Care Plan!"

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2020

As heard on the PBS NewsHour: A long time ago, he said he'd dreamed "a crazy dream." He said he'd dreamed he was walking through World War III!

So it was for the (very) young Dylan, as reported in 1963. 

Last night, we also thought we'd dreamed a dream. We dreamed we were watching the PBS NewsHour, and someone identified as "acting director of the White House Domestic Policy Council" told Judy Woodruff this:

WOODRUFF (10/27/20): Let me also ask you about a health care plan.

ROLLINS: Sure.

WOODRUFF: The president has been saying, since he was elected, that he will present a health care plan to the American people. We're now almost four years later. There still isn't one. Why not?

ROLLINS: Judy, that's actually not—that's not true. He rolled out his Great American Health Care Plan on September 24 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is on the White House Web site. It talks and walks through lower costs, better care, more choice for all Americans and how he will do that, expanding health savings accounts, telemedicine—

By now, you can probably see why we thought we were dreaming! 

At that point, some CROSSTALK occurred. But then, the dream rolled on:

WOODRUFF: But it hasn't been presented to the Congress in the form of a formal proposal.

[CROSSTALK]

ROLLINS: Well—well, what his plan is is what he's presenting to the American people. He's tried to move things through the Congress. Of course, with the stalemate, it hasn't been possible.

"What his plan is is what he's presenting to the American people." The whole conversation bore the unmistakable feel of a dreamscape.

The dream continued from there. As noted, we dreamed we heard these unusual statements on last evening's NewsHour.

Was it just a dream, or did that exchange really happen? At first, we assumed it had to have been a dream because the claims seemed so implausible. 

We start with the implausible claim that someone is advising Trump on matters of domestic policy.

We move on to that alleged person's claims—the claim that Trump does have a health care plan; the claim that he rolled it out in September; and the fuzzy semi-claim that he tried to get his health care plan through Congress.

Even Trump hasn't made these claims when he's been questioned about this matter by people like Savannah Guthrie and Kristin Welker in recent weeks. But here was an acting director named Brooke Rollins, making these unusual claims as Judy Woodruff looked on.

Today, we looked at the PBS NewsHour site. A transcript for this conversation actually does appear at the site, along with full videotape. We realized then that this wasn't a dream—that this exchange did occur.

That said, is it true? Did Trump roll out a Great American Health Care Plan on September 24? Very frankly, Woodruff didn't seem a whole lot clearer about this claim than we were!

Tomorrow, we'll show you what we discovered when we decided to fact-check our dream. Also this:

In another "snapshot from the edge," we'll show you  how Lesley Stahl questioned Donald J. Trump about the absence of a health care plan when she interviewed him for 60 Minutes last week.

We'll show you the questions Stahl asked in the unedited interview. After that, we'll show you the dumbed-down version of the interview the suits aired on Sunday night.

The extremely young Bob Dylan dreamed he was walking through World War III. Speaking of dreams, do we actually have a "national discourse" at this extremely late date?

Tomorrow, we'll show you the questions Stahl asked. After that, we'll show you the Potemkin-flavored tapioca her bosses put on the air.

We'll even show you a little bit more of what Woodruff put up with last night. At this point, do we have anything like an actual discourse at all?