President Joe Biden was in North Carolina yesterday, focusing attention on one of his favorite issues: health care. The Democratic incumbent, making a pitch in a possible battleground state, talked up the Affordable Care Act, its recent victories, its impact in the state, and the president’s eagerness to build on the accomplishments.

But stepping back, it becomes clear that Biden’s effort was part of a larger campaign, largely built around the anniversary of Barack Obama signing the ACA into law. The former Democratic president released a new video about the reform law and its future this week, which came on the heels of a related ACA video last week from Obama, Biden, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, each of whom touted the law’s successes, while warning of Donald Trump’s and the GOP’s plans to undo what’s been done.

Around the same time, Biden’s re-election campaign released an ad reminding the public about Trump’s intention to eliminate the popular and successful reform law.

If Democrats hoped to goad the presumptive Republican nominee into once again going after the ACA, the plan worked.

On his social media platform, the former president yesterday denied plans to “terminate” the former law, arguing instead that he intends to replace Obamacare with something that’s “MUCH BETTER, STRONGER, AND FAR LESS EXPENSIVE.” (As part of the same missive, Trump misspelled Biden’s name, and made up new words: “disinformates” and “misinformates.”)

All of this matters for a few reasons.

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First, Trump’s obviously lying about now wanting to “terminate” the ACA. He’s explicitly said the opposite on countless occasions. What’s more, as regular readers know, the former president has spent recent months repeatedly targeting Obamacare in increasingly explicit terms, and as recently as December, the Republican posted a video to his social media platform attacking the late Sen. John McCain for not helping him “terminate” the ACA in 2017.

Second, the Republican might like the idea of a better, stronger, and cheaper version of the ACA, but Trump has had nearly a decade to come up with such a plan, and so far, he’s failed spectacularly.

This, in turn, creates an uncomfortable question for voters: Are families willing to vote for a presidential candidate who’s eager to tear down the nation’s health care system and replace it with an alternative he doesn’t want to talk about?

Third, Democrats are desperate to convince voters that the future of the Affordable Care Act is on the ballot this year. Trump — and several leading congressional Republicans and the Republican Study Committee — keep making their job easier.