President Joe Biden said Tuesday that his nurse would “do things” she likely did not learn in nursing school.
The president made the remark during a speech on affordable healthcare in Virginia Beach, describing a nurse he once met named Pearl Nelson when he suffered from clogged arteries.
“I had a nurse named Pearl Nelson. She’d come in and do things I don’t think you learn in nursing school,” the president said. “She’d whisper in my ear, I couldn’t understand her, but she’d whisper and she’d lean down and actually breathe on me to make sure there was a human connection.”
The president praised her and other nurses for their hospitality toward him and his late son, Beau, who fought in Iraq and later died from brain cancer. He called the nursing profession the most “underestimated in the world.” (RELATED: Biden Gaffes On Healthcare Plan: It’s ‘Not Quality’ And Will ‘Increase Premiums’ Of Working Class)
He expressed the importance of accessing healthcare and for families to have “breathing room” by bringing down medical costs and investing in Medicaid. He recalled the strain on his own family when his father lost his health insurance when Biden was a senior in high school.
The president then criticized “MAGA Republicans,” accusing them of attempting to “eliminate healthcare coverage.” He came under scrutiny among congressional Republicans for claiming at the State of the Union Address they want to cut Social Security and Medicare, which the party has adamantly denied.