BATTLE CREEK, MI -- Former Vice President and 2020 Democratic primary hopeful Joe Biden attacked President Donald Trump in a statement released hours before Trump’s campaign rally in Michigan.

Biden said Trump will face an “uphill climb” to win Michigan for after the president’s work to undermine the Affordable Care Act. The 2020 primary contender has a central role in Trump’s presidency -- Trump is facing impeachment for soliciting Ukraine’s help to investigate Biden and his son’s business dealings in the country.

“While Congress upholds its Constitutional duty to hold accountable the most corrupt president in modern history for his abuse of power, Donald Trump is returning to Michigan to fight for his political survival,” Biden said in a statement to MLive.

In addition to impeachment, Biden said Michigan voters will hold Trump accountable for his efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act. Biden has made strengthening the Obama administration law a key part of his health care agenda.

“Donald Trump knows that ripping away health care is a losing issue," Biden said. "As president, I will do everything in my power to protect and build on the Affordable Care Act, not tear it down.”

Biden’s plan calls for creating a public health insurance option, allowing people to join a Medicare-like program. The former vice president said this alternative is more attractive to union households and working voters than “Medicare for All” proposals that would eliminate private insurance and move everyone to government health care.

The Trump campaign responded in a statement provided to MLive.

“The real losing issue is Joe Biden and the Democrats’ plans to sabotage the private healthcare plans of 5.5 million Michiganders," said Trump campaign Rapid Response Director Andrew Clark. "Meanwhile, the President’s record of accomplishments in Michigan is clear: unlike during the Obama-Biden years, ACA premiums are falling and unemployment is the lowest its been in twenty years.”

Doctors and healthcare professionals of the Committee to Protect Medicare also held a press conference to highlight Trump’s “healthcare failures” hours before he is scheduled to hold a rally in Battle Creek. Matt Longjohn, a Democrat who ran a failed challenge to U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, in 2018, led the discussion.

“Despite how much we pay for healthcare, for the first time in centuries, kids of this generation are not expected to live as long as their parents," Longjohn said. “(Trump’s) failed healthcare policy is bad medicine for American families, and he must be held accountable for his reckless decisions."

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