Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg “stole” his health care plan.

Biden has proposed expanding the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, and Biden wants to add a “public option,” allowing individuals to opt into a government plan while maintaining private insurer’s existing role. But Biden says Buttigieg “stole” this idea, according to Reuters.

“He stole it,” Biden told reporters Monday on his campaign bus in Iowa. He also said that if he had done the same, he would have been harshly criticized.

“What would you have done to me? You’d have torn my ears off,” he said.

Buttigieg has also said he supports what he calls “Medicare for all who want it” and also supports the public option that Biden wishes to add. The Buttigieg campaign pointed out to Reuters statements Buttigieg had made concerning “Medicare for all who want it” before Biden’s campaign began.

The Biden and Buttigieg campaigns did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Image: Reuters.