Former vice president and current Democrat candidate for president, Joe Biden, feels the United States has an “obligation” to give free health care to illegal aliens.

The leading Democrat candidate made his pronouncement at a campaign stop in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday.

Replying to a reporter who asked if illegals who are “law abiding” deserve federal benefits, Biden eagerly agreed.

Joe Biden says the US should provide healthcare to people “regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented.” pic.twitter.com/19La4DEtXK — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) May 9, 2019

“I think that anyone who is in a situation where they’re in need of health care, regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented, we have an obligation to see that they are cared for,” Biden said. “That’s why I think we need more clinics around the country.”

The former vice president added that we need to “tone down the rhetoric” against illegals and that worries over illegal immigration are meant to “create fear and concern” about “that other, the immigrant.”

Biden has thus far been rather closed-mouth about health care. While he certainly supports Obamacare and an expansion of his former boss’s signature achievement, Biden has not spoken to what sort of plan he prefers as he gears up his campaign for the Democrat nomination for 2020.

Unlike other Democrat candidates, Biden has not endorsed Medicare-for-all but neither has he denounced the idea.

As to illegal aliens, Biden has previously exclaimed that they are “already Americans.”

In a 2014 speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. the then-vice president declared that the millions of illegals in the U.S. are already American citizens.

You know, the 11 million people living in the shadows, I believe they’re already American citizens. Teddy Roosevelt said it better, he said Americanism is not a question of birthplace or creed or a line of dissent. It’s a question of principles, idealism, and character. [Emphasis added] These people are just waiting, waiting for a chance to be able to contribute fully. And by that standard, 11 million undocumented aliens are already American

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.