President Donald Trump learned what many Black children find out at an early age: you never, ever try to talk over a Black woman.
The President's reality check moment came on Tuesday during The President and the People: A 20/20 Special Event on ABC During the event, Philadelphia professor Ellesia Blaque stepped up to express her concerns about healthcare and refused to be bullied by the commander-In-chief.
Journalist Phil Lewis captured the moment on Twitter.
Trump just found you don’t interrupt an older Black woman when she’s speaking pic.twitter.com/T9IiMOGFcK
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 16, 2020
"Should preexisting questions, which Obamacare brought to fruition, be removed?" Blaque asked.
While she still had more to say, the President jumped in and said "no."
Blaque, who Business Insider reports is an assistant professor from Philadelphia, gracefully stood her ground.
"Please stop and let me finish my question sir," she said.
The concerned citizen continued with her question while the President froze in his seat at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
"Should that be removed within a 36 to 72-hour period?" the voter asked.
Blaque pressed Trump by highlighting her own struggles with pre-existing conditions and the role Obamacare played in saving her life. She spoke about a disease which started in her skin when she was born, then eventually moved to her eyes, optic nerves and brain.
"When it hit my brain, I was automatically eligible for the rest of my life," she said. "I chose instead to get a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, a PhD and become a professor."
The president jumped in and said "that's great."
But Blaque didn't come for his praise.
"It is great, but I still have similar healthcare problems," she said. "With co-pays, I'm still paying almost $7,000 a year in addition to the copay."
Without her medication, Blaque said she "would be dead." She grilled the President about what he is going to do protect people like her who work hard.
"It's not my fault that I was born with this disease," Blaque said. "It's not my fault that I'm a Black woman and in the medical community, I'm minimized and not taken seriously. I want to know what you're going to do about that."
CNN's Don Lemon highlighted several other moments from the town hall in which Trump was confronted about various issues. One of the topics focused on the President's refusal to wear a mask during the pandemic.
"A lot of people don't want to wear a mask," Trump said during the town hall. "A lot of people think masks are not good."
George Stephanopoulos, who moderated the town hall, said "who are those people?"
The President used waiters as an example.
"I saw it the other day. They were serving me and they're playing with their masks," he said. "I'm not blaming them. I'm just saying what happened. They're playing with the mask. They're touching it and then they're touching the plate. That can't be good."
Lemon, reacting to the clip, said "that's what happens when you're actually in a bubble."
"For a man who doesn't wear a mask at all, to blame waiters for possibly touching their masks, I don't even know what to say about that," the CNN host said.
One voter asked the President why he would "downplay a pandemic that is known to disproportionately harm low-income families and minority communities."
"Yeah, well, I didn't downplay it," Trump said. "I actually, in many ways, I up-played it, in terms of action. My action was very strong."
According to ABC News, the President has been under fire in recent days for comments he made to journalist Bob Woodward in March.
"I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down. Yes, because I don't want to create a panic," Trump said, according to recordings from interviews for Woodward's for upcoming book.
Another person at the town hall confronted the 74-year-old about his campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."
"That pushes us back to a time in which we cannot identify with such 'greatness,'" the voter asked. "You've said everything else about choking and everything else, but you have yet to address and acknowledge that it has been a race problem in America."
The President danced around the question.
"Well, I hope there's not a race problem," he said. "I can tell you there's none with me because I have great respect for all races — for everybody. This country is great because of it."
Tuesday's town hall was held in a state that will be critical in determining the outcome of the election. Pennsylvania holds the second-highest number of electoral votes after Florida, ABC News reported.
