Former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump received the Covid-19 vaccine at the White House in January, but we only learned about that in March. The former president pandered to his anti-vaxxer base by holding super-spreader events while mocking social distancing guidelines. And now, Trump said he does not understand why Republicans are more hesitant of getting the shot.
In a completely bonkers interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Trump said he had been asked to do a commercial to promote the vaccine because a lot of his supporters “don’t want to take the vaccine.”
Half of Republican men have said they are hesitant to get the coronavirus vaccine. Many elected officials have posted selfies as they get vaccinated to promote the safety of others. Even Ivanka Trump posted a photo on Instagram of her getting the shot. Things are so bad with Trump’s base, though, that she received a backlash from her father’s supporters.
Trump told Hannity that he doesn’t know why Republicans are hesitant to get vaccinated, saying, “I don’t know what that is exactly.”
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“I encourage people to take it, I do,” Trump said.
Then, of course, Trump tore into the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause as being “stupid.” Trump went on to push a baseless conspiracy theory that U.S. health agencies paused the rollout to benefit Pfizer, claiming the pharma company was “in with the FDA” because, of course, he did.
Watch:
Trump says that he was “asked to do a commercial saying take the vaccine” because”a lot of our people don’t want to take the vaccine,” but he isn’t too keen on it because of the Johnson & Johnson pause, which he seemingly attributes to the FDA being in bed with Pfizer. pic.twitter.com/LNAKzM4GOb
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 20, 2021
All living former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and their respective former first ladies — except for the Trumps — were featured in an ad campaign to urge Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine.
After President Joe Biden’s successful distribution of the vaccine, Trump issued a statement in March to grab credit. “I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the Covid-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) vaccine, that if I wasn’t president, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all,” he said. “I hope everyone remembers.”
Oh, we remember that 400,000 Americans died on Trump’s watch. No problem there, Sport. We’re sure his commercial will come out in “two weeks,” just like his health care plan.
Featured image via Michael Vadon/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
