Under Trump, Republicans touted the coronavirus vaccines. Now, under Biden, they’re questioning them.

The Juggler · July 2021

These people are crazy.

Halifax2TheMax · July 2021

The Juggler said:

These people are crazy.

Death cultists soon to be lead by Deathsantis. Maybe with CHRISTy Noem as veep or Abbott & Costello?

mickeyrat · July 2021

Skip to main content

Democracy Dies in Darkness

Analysis

Under Trump, Republicans touted the coronavirus vaccines. Now, under Biden, they’re questioning them.

Republicans shift views on the coronavirus vaccine under Biden

As President Biden urges Americans to get vaccinated, Republicans who previously touted the vaccines have started questioning their efficacy. (JM Rieger/The Washington Post)

By JM Rieger

Video editor

July 14, 2021|Updated today at 3:41 p.m. EDT

Days after initial data from two coronavirus vaccines showed broad effectiveness at preventing illness, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) went on Fox Business Network to laud them.

“I’ve been a big proponent of releasing it early,” Paul said Nov. 19. “I think that we’ve had enough safety and effectiveness data.”

About two weeks later, Paul told Fox: “All I would say to government officials is let’s get the vaccine out as soon as we can.”

Since then, Paul has become one of several congressional Republicans employing conjecture and misinformation to question the efficacy of the vaccines and the Biden administration’s efforts to vaccinate more Americans. You can watch examples of these juxtapositions in the video above.

While it is not inherently contradictory to praise the vaccines while also asking questions about them, most of these Republican questions are premised on misinformation. It marks a significant shift after those same Republicans touted the vaccines during the Trump administration, and it comes as infections and deaths have grown among the unvaccinated and dropped among the vaccinated.

In December, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) praised the Trump administration’s “brilliant” Operation Warp Speed for helping expedite the development of coronavirus vaccines. Since then, Johnson has inflated the number of adverse reactions and deaths linked to the vaccines.

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.), a former White House physician, told Fox News in November that he would get vaccinated to contribute to herd immunity. By July, Jackson was warning Fox viewers that “this is still an experimental vaccine being used under an emergency use authorization.”

In March, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) praised former president Donald Trump for saving lives with the coronavirus vaccines. By July, Greene was telling Americans not to get vaccinated.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) produced a video trumpeting Trump’s vaccine effort in December, only to question the long-term effects of the vaccines five months later on Fox.

Less than two months after thanking Trump for the vaccines, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) in July said a Biden effort to vaccinate more Americans could lead to government confiscation of guns and Bibles.

The false and misleading claims about the vaccines from these Republicans are directly refuted by data showing the vaccines approved for use in the United States are overwhelmingly safe and effective. But those false and misleading claims track with a Republican voter base that is skeptical of getting vaccinated, in part because of said false and misleading claims.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was asked whether he had a message to Republicans and conservative commentators who were casting doubts on the coronavirus vaccines.

“I’m perplexed by the difficulty we have in finishing the job,” McConnell said. “If you’re a football fan, we’re in the red zone, but we’re not in the end zone yet, and we need to keep preaching that getting the vaccine is important.”

Moments later a reporter pushed back, noting that senators in his own party were questioning the vaccines.

“I’ve already answered the question about how I feel about this,” McConnell replied. “I can only speak for myself, and I just did a few minutes ago.”

washingtonpost.com
© 1996-2021 The Washington Post

Halifax2TheMax · July 2021

You go Deathsantis, you go, you frontrunner you. Earning that moniker, you go.

DeSantis sells ‘Don’t Fauci My Florida’ merch as new coronavirus cases near highest in nation

Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested that he should be criminally investigated. Republican members of Congress introduced a “Fire Fauci Act” to remove his salary.

Now White House medical adviser Anthony S. Fauci — a polarizing figure in the U.S. response to the coronavirus — is also part of a rising GOP star’s political branding.

“Don’t Fauci My Florida,” read drink koozies and T-shirts that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign team rolled out just as his state sees some of the highest coronavirus hospitalizations, new infections and deaths per capita in the country. It’s the latest example of Republicans running on their opposition to virus-fueled shutdowns and mask mandates. A pandemic hero to some and villain to others, Fauci has become a high-profile target.

While the merchandise is focused on Florida before the 2022 gubernatorial race there, DeSantis is seen as a potential front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. A key part of his pitch: He resisted public health experts’ calls for stricter measures against the spread of the coronavirus, spurring criticism on the left and praise from the right for keeping his state’s schools and economy comparatively open.

While discussing the Florida budget this summer, DeSantis said his state’s rosy financial outlook would not have been possible “if we had followed Fauci.”

“Instead we followed freedom,” he said.

His campaign’s “Team DeSantis” Twitter account announced the new merchandise Monday. The Fauci items are listed alongside “Keep Florida Free” hats and red koozies that take aim at face coverings with a DeSantis quote: “How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?”

The campaign team did not respond to The Washington Post’s questions Tuesday, and Fauci did not respond to a request for comment.

New coronavirus infection numbers plummeted in Florida after vaccinations became widely available, but they have ticked up in recent weeks. The state is reporting daily cases close to four times the national average — 26 new infections per 100,000 residents, the second-highest number in the country. The state’s latest covid-19 death rate is almost double the national figure, and it ranks fourth for current hospitalizations.

Fauci has been a vocal proponent of mask mandates and other measures to mitigate covid-19, the illness the novel coronavirus causes, though he and other federal health officials encouraged schools to open with safety precautions. As a coronavirus adviser to the Trump administration, Fauci criticized some of Florida’s decisions: In the fall, he called the state’s move to fully reopen restaurants and bars “very concerning.”

“When you’re dealing with community spread, and you have the kind of congregate setting where people get together, particularly without masks, you’re really asking for trouble,” Fauci said at the time on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Now’s the time actually to double down a bit, and I don’t mean close.”

DeSantis avoided statewide mask requirements even as leaders across the political spectrum embraced them amid growing evidence of their effectiveness. This spring, he suspended all virus-based local rules for businesses and individuals.

The governor has encouraged people to get vaccinated but also banned businesses from requiring proof of vaccination, arguing that such measures are a form of discrimination against people who refuse vaccines for medical or religious reasons. He also successfully sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep it from enforcing its coronavirus rules on cruise ships in Florida, a major part of the state’s tourism industry.

With the new merchandise, DeSantis is trying to cash in on a growing conservative backlash toward Fauci, a longtime government scientist who has advised seven presidents and directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Throughout the pandemic, Fauci has drawn ire from the right for advocating restrictions and changing stances on whether the general public should wear masks. Fauci says he and other public health leaders flipped positions as they learned more about the effectiveness of face coverings and after initially fearing that the public would snap up masks needed for health workers.

But the focus on Fauci intensified after BuzzFeed News and The Post recently obtained some of his early pandemic emails. The doctor was a target of criticism and derision at last weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, where ominous black-and-white video clips of Fauci talking drew loud boos from crowd.

Resistance to shutdowns, masks and vaccine promotions came up often at the conservative gathering. “We’ve got Republican governors across this country pretending they didn’t shut down their states … that they didn’t mandate masks,” said South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R), another leader seen as a potential 2024 presidential contender.

Analysis: The alleged Fauci ‘smoking gun’ emails

Fauci has called criticisms from high-profile Republicans “bizarre.”

“I’ve become sort of, for some reason or another, a symbol of anything they don’t like” related to anything “contrary to them or outside of their own realm,” he said this spring.

Florida has seen more coronavirus cases than most states, recording nearly 11,300 infections per 100,000 people to date. It ranks roughly in the middle for deaths per 100,000, according to data tracked by The Post, while early East Coast hot spots such as New York and New Jersey have the highest fatalities per capita, followed by some Southern and Sun Belt states hit hard as the pandemic’s U.S. epicenters shifted.

About 47 percent of Floridians are fully vaccinated, and the state is projected to reach 70 percent vaccination — the Biden administration’s original nationwide goal for July 4 — in late August, according to a Post analysis. Most covid-19 deaths are occurring among the unvaccinated.

To critics, DeSantis spurned medical experts in a public health crisis that overwhelmed hospitals and has led to nearly 39,000 deaths in his state. But others have cheered DeSantis for prioritizing the economy.

In May, Florida ranked roughly in the middle of states on unemployment, according to the latest federal data, and averaged 7.7 percent in 2020, slightly below the national average of 8.1 percent.

Florida Gov. DeSantis sells anti-Fauci merchandise as doctor draws Republican ire - The Washington Post

In the past week in Florida...

New daily reported cases rose 189.8%

New daily reported deaths rose 40%

Covid-related hospitalizations rose 44.3% Read more

Among reported tests, the positivity rate was 9.6%.

The number of tests reported fell 2.4% from the previous week.Read more

Since Dec. 14, more than 21,639,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Florida.

More than 10,142,000 people have completed vaccination, or about 47.22% of the population. Read more about Florida’s vaccination strategy in our vaccination tracker.

U.S. coronavirus cases and state maps: Tracking cases, deaths - Washington Post

mickeyrat · July 2021

anti-vax Tennessee.....

July 14, 2021 (Wednesday)

Yesterday, news broke that, under pressure from Republican leaders, Republican-dominated Tennessee will no longer conduct vaccine outreach for minors. Only 38% of people in Tennessee are vaccinated, and yet the state Department of Health will no longer reach out to urge minors to get vaccinated.

This change affects not only vaccines for the coronavirus, but also all other routine vaccines. On Monday, Tennessee’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tim Jones sent an email to staff saying there should be "no proactive outreach regarding routine vaccines" and "no outreach whatsoever regarding the HPV vaccine." The HPV vaccine protects against a common sexually transmitted infection that causes cervical cancer, among other cancers.

Staff were also told not to do any "pre-planning" for flu shots events at schools. Any information released about back-to-school vaccinations should come from the Tennessee Department of Education, not the Tennessee Department of Health, Jones wrote.

On Monday, Dr. Michelle Fiscus, Tennessee's former top vaccine official, was fired without explanation, and Republicans have talked about getting rid of the Department of Health altogether, saying it has been undermining parents by going around them and straight to teens to promote vaccines.

Video editor J.M. Rieger of the Washington Post put together a series of videos of Republicans boosting the vaccine and thanking former president Donald Trump for it only to show the same people now spreading disinformation, calling vaccines one of the greatest scandals in our history, and even comparing vaccines to the horrors of the Nazis.

This begs the question: Why?

Former FBI special agent, lawyer, and professor Asha Rangappa put this question to Twitter. “Seriously: What is the [Republicans’] endgame in trying to convince their own voters not to get the vaccine?” The most insightful answer, I thought, was that the Republican’s best hope for winning in 2022—aside from voter suppression—is to keep the culture wars hot, even if it means causing illness and death.

The Republican Party continues to move to the right. During his time in office, the former president put his supporters into office at the level of the state parties, a move that is paying off as they purge from their midst those unwilling to follow Trump. Today, in Michigan, the Republican Party chair who had criticized Trump, Jason Cabel Roe, resigned.

Candidates who have thrown their hat into the ring for the 2022 midterm elections are trying to get attention by being more and more extreme. They vow to take on the establishment, support Trump and God, and strike terror into the “Liberals” who are bringing socialism to America. Forty QAnon supporters are running for Congress, 38 as Republicans, 2 as Independents.

And yet, there are cracks in this Republican rush to Trumpism.

Yesterday, on the Fox News Channel, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) admitted that "Joe Biden is the president of the United States. He legitimately got elected." Trump supporters immediately attacked McCarthy, but the minority leader is only too aware that the House Select Committee on the Capitol Insurrection will start hearing witnesses on July 27, and the spotlight on that event is highly unlikely to make the former president—and possibly some of the Republican lawmakers—look good.

Already, the books coming out about the former administration have been scathing, but tonight news broke of new revelations in a forthcoming book by Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. Leonnig and Rucker interviewed more than 140 members of the former administration and say that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A. Milley was increasingly upset as he listened to Trump lie about having won the election, believing Trump was looking for an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military.

Milley compared the former president’s language to that of Hitler and was so worried Trump was going to seize power that Milley began to strategize with other military leaders to keep him from using the military in illegal ways, especially after Trump put his allies at the head of the Pentagon. “They may try, but they’re not going to f---ing succeed,” he allegedly said.

In addition to damaging stories coming out about the former president, news broke yesterday that Fitch Ratings, a credit rating company, is considering downgrading the AAA rating of the United States government bonds. The problem is not the economy. In fact, the Fitch Ratings report praises the economy, saying it “has recovered much more rapidly than expected, helped by policy stimulus and the roll-out of the vaccination program, which has allowed economic reopening…. [T]he scale and speed of the policy response [is] a positive reflection on the macroeconomic policy framework. Real economic output has overtaken its pre-pandemic level and is on track to exceed pre-pandemic projections....”

Although the report worries about the growing debt, we also learned yesterday that the deficit for June dropped a whopping 80% from the deficit a year ago, as tax receipts recover along with the economy. Year-to-date, the annual deficit is down 18% from last year.

The problem, the report says, is politics. And it is specific. “The failure of the former president to concede the election and the events surrounding the certification of the results of the presidential election in Congress in January, have no recent parallels in other very highly rated sovereigns. The redrafting of election laws in some states could weaken the political system, increasing divergence between votes cast and party representation. These developments underline an ongoing risk of lack of bipartisanship and difficulty in formulating policy and passing laws in Congress.”

Merkin Baller · July 2021

It's pretty impressive how much trump fucked our country and yet the rubes are all convinced Fauci is the bad guy.

Goebbels would be proud.

mrussel1 · July 2021

The TN situation is outrageous and now it's extending beyond the Covid vaccine and into vaccines in general, including HPV.

Halifax2TheMax · July 2021

From Letter From an American. You would think the party of fiscal "responsibility" would get "it" and move on. Death cult.

In addition to damaging stories coming out about the former president, news broke yesterday that Fitch Ratings, a credit rating company, is considering downgrading the AAA rating of the United States government bonds. The problem is not the economy. In fact, the Fitch Ratings report praises the economy, saying it “has recovered much more rapidly than expected, helped by policy stimulus and the roll-out of the vaccination program, which has allowed economic reopening…. [T]he scale and speed of the policy response [is] a positive reflection on the macroeconomic policy framework. Real economic output has overtaken its pre-pandemic level and is on track to exceed pre-pandemic projections....”

Although the report worries about the growing debt, we also learned yesterday that the deficit for June dropped a whopping 80% from the deficit a year ago, as tax receipts recover along with the economy. Year-to-date, the annual deficit is down 18% from last year.

The problem, the report says, is politics. And it is specific. “The failure of the former president to concede the election and the events surrounding the certification of the results of the presidential election in Congress in January, have no recent parallels in other very highly rated sovereigns. The redrafting of election laws in some states could weaken the political system, increasing divergence between votes cast and party representation. These developments underline an ongoing risk of lack of bipartisanship and difficulty in formulating policy and passing laws in Congress.”

Merkin Baller · July 2021

Halifax2TheMax said:

From Letter From an American. You would think the party of fiscal "responsibility" would get "it" and move on. Death cult.

In addition to damaging stories coming out about the former president, news broke yesterday that Fitch Ratings, a credit rating company, is considering downgrading the AAA rating of the United States government bonds. The problem is not the economy. In fact, the Fitch Ratings report praises the economy, saying it “has recovered much more rapidly than expected, helped by policy stimulus and the roll-out of the vaccination program, which has allowed economic reopening…. [T]he scale and speed of the policy response [is] a positive reflection on the macroeconomic policy framework. Real economic output has overtaken its pre-pandemic level and is on track to exceed pre-pandemic projections....”

Although the report worries about the growing debt, we also learned yesterday that the deficit for June dropped a whopping 80% from the deficit a year ago, as tax receipts recover along with the economy. Year-to-date, the annual deficit is down 18% from last year.

The problem, the report says, is politics. And it is specific. “The failure of the former president to concede the election and the events surrounding the certification of the results of the presidential election in Congress in January, have no recent parallels in other very highly rated sovereigns. The redrafting of election laws in some states could weaken the political system, increasing divergence between votes cast and party representation. These developments underline an ongoing risk of lack of bipartisanship and difficulty in formulating policy and passing laws in Congress.”

trump was right, I'm definitely sick and tired of all this winning.

The Juggler · July 2021

These people are crazy.

All Trump has/had to do is/was tout the very vaccines he wanted credit for making so quickly and tens of thousands more people (maybe hundreds of thousands) might very well still be alive and life would be even more back to normal by this point.

mrussel1 · July 2021

The Juggler said:

These people are crazy.

All Trump has/had to do is/was tout the very vaccines he wanted credit for making so quickly and tens of thousands more people (maybe hundreds of thousands) might very well still be alive and life would be even more back to normal by this point.

This tells you something important.. Trump is a mouthpiece for the uneducated (fools), he's not necessarily the leader of them. He channels them, he doesn't influence them.

The Juggler · July 2021

mrussel1 said:

The Juggler said:

These people are crazy.

All Trump has/had to do is/was tout the very vaccines he wanted credit for making so quickly and tens of thousands more people (maybe hundreds of thousands) might very well still be alive and life would be even more back to normal by this point.

This tells you something important.. Trump is a mouthpiece for the uneducated (fools), he's not necessarily the leader of them. He channels them, he doesn't influence them.

I think he has a lot of influence. My point was if he was vocal about getting the vaccine and vocal about the benefits and how everyone should get them, you'd likely have millions more lining up for the shots and tens of thousands less dead. Just imagine if he got his shot on television, imagine him on commercials touting the vaccine's benefits, imagine him talking about that nonstop instead of the election he lost by 7 million votes.

You're saying you think they still would not trust the vaccine despite all of that happening? Maybe I am not understanding you correctly...

JB16057 · July 2021

The Juggler said:

mrussel1 said:

The Juggler said:

These people are crazy.

All Trump has/had to do is/was tout the very vaccines he wanted credit for making so quickly and tens of thousands more people (maybe hundreds of thousands) might very well still be alive and life would be even more back to normal by this point.

This tells you something important.. Trump is a mouthpiece for the uneducated (fools), he's not necessarily the leader of them. He channels them, he doesn't influence them.

I think he has a lot of influence. My point was if he was vocal about getting the vaccine and vocal about the benefits and how everyone should get them, you'd likely have millions more lining up for the shots and tens of thousands less dead. Just imagine if he got his shot on television, imagine him on commercials touting the vaccine's benefits, imagine him talking about that nonstop instead of the election he lost by 7 million votes.

You're saying you think they still would not trust the vaccine despite all of that happening? Maybe I am not understanding you correctly...

Here is what Trump said about the vaccine:

"I would recommend it and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly," Trump told "Fox News Primetime."

Still, he continued: "But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works."

The people that are choosing to not take the vaccine are not going to listen to anyone.

RunIntoTheRain · July 2021

The Juggler said:

mrussel1 said:

The Juggler said:

These people are crazy.

All Trump has/had to do is/was tout the very vaccines he wanted credit for making so quickly and tens of thousands more people (maybe hundreds of thousands) might very well still be alive and life would be even more back to normal by this point.

This tells you something important.. Trump is a mouthpiece for the uneducated (fools), he's not necessarily the leader of them. He channels them, he doesn't influence them.

I think he has a lot of influence. My point was if he was vocal about getting the vaccine and vocal about the benefits and how everyone should get them, you'd likely have millions more lining up for the shots and tens of thousands less dead. Just imagine if he got his shot on television, imagine him on commercials touting the vaccine's benefits, imagine him talking about that nonstop instead of the election he lost by 7 million votes.

You're saying you think they still would not trust the vaccine despite all of that happening? Maybe I am not understanding you correctly...

I agree 1000% that this would have made a huge difference.

JB16057 said:

Here is what Trump said about the vaccine:

"I would recommend it and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly," Trump told "Fox News Primetime."
Still, he continued: "But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works."

The people that are choosing to not take the vaccine are not going to listen to anyone.

This was in March and to my memory, was the only time he touted the vaccine after the election.

mrussel1 · July 2021

RunIntoTheRain said:

The Juggler said:

mrussel1 said:

The Juggler said:

These people are crazy.

All Trump has/had to do is/was tout the very vaccines he wanted credit for making so quickly and tens of thousands more people (maybe hundreds of thousands) might very well still be alive and life would be even more back to normal by this point.

This tells you something important.. Trump is a mouthpiece for the uneducated (fools), he's not necessarily the leader of them. He channels them, he doesn't influence them.

I think he has a lot of influence. My point was if he was vocal about getting the vaccine and vocal about the benefits and how everyone should get them, you'd likely have millions more lining up for the shots and tens of thousands less dead. Just imagine if he got his shot on television, imagine him on commercials touting the vaccine's benefits, imagine him talking about that nonstop instead of the election he lost by 7 million votes.

You're saying you think they still would not trust the vaccine despite all of that happening? Maybe I am not understanding you correctly...

I agree 1000% that this would have made a huge difference.

JB16057 said:

Here is what Trump said about the vaccine:

"I would recommend it and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly," Trump told "Fox News Primetime."
Still, he continued: "But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works."

The people that are choosing to not take the vaccine are not going to listen to anyone.

This was in March and to my memory, was the only time he touted the vaccine after the election.

Right, so why isn't he pushing it? I think it's because it runs against the tide of his supporters. That's why I don't think he's a thought leader in the party, he's a mouthpiece of the grass roots

tempo_n_groove · July 2021

mrussel1 said:

RunIntoTheRain said:

The Juggler said:

mrussel1 said:

The Juggler said:

These people are crazy.

All Trump has/had to do is/was tout the very vaccines he wanted credit for making so quickly and tens of thousands more people (maybe hundreds of thousands) might very well still be alive and life would be even more back to normal by this point.

This tells you something important.. Trump is a mouthpiece for the uneducated (fools), he's not necessarily the leader of them. He channels them, he doesn't influence them.

I think he has a lot of influence. My point was if he was vocal about getting the vaccine and vocal about the benefits and how everyone should get them, you'd likely have millions more lining up for the shots and tens of thousands less dead. Just imagine if he got his shot on television, imagine him on commercials touting the vaccine's benefits, imagine him talking about that nonstop instead of the election he lost by 7 million votes.

You're saying you think they still would not trust the vaccine despite all of that happening? Maybe I am not understanding you correctly...

I agree 1000% that this would have made a huge difference.

JB16057 said:

Here is what Trump said about the vaccine:

"I would recommend it and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly," Trump told "Fox News Primetime."
Still, he continued: "But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works."

The people that are choosing to not take the vaccine are not going to listen to anyone.

This was in March and to my memory, was the only time he touted the vaccine after the election.

Right, so why isn't he pushing it? I think it's because it runs against the tide of his supporters. That's why I don't think he's a thought leader in the party, he's a mouthpiece of the grass roots

Control the mob and you control Rome. Completely pandering to his base.

JeBurkhardt · July 2021

I think if he had won the election, he would be shouting from the rooftops about his "great success" of beating the virus with the vaccines that he was singularly responsible for. My guess is that if he runs for 2024, and the vaccine proves to be what ends or at least majorly subdues the virus, he will be taking credit for it as part of his campaign.

The Juggler · July 2021

mrussel1 said:

RunIntoTheRain said:

The Juggler said:

mrussel1 said:

The Juggler said:

These people are crazy.

All Trump has/had to do is/was tout the very vaccines he wanted credit for making so quickly and tens of thousands more people (maybe hundreds of thousands) might very well still be alive and life would be even more back to normal by this point.

This tells you something important.. Trump is a mouthpiece for the uneducated (fools), he's not necessarily the leader of them. He channels them, he doesn't influence them.

I think he has a lot of influence. My point was if he was vocal about getting the vaccine and vocal about the benefits and how everyone should get them, you'd likely have millions more lining up for the shots and tens of thousands less dead. Just imagine if he got his shot on television, imagine him on commercials touting the vaccine's benefits, imagine him talking about that nonstop instead of the election he lost by 7 million votes.

You're saying you think they still would not trust the vaccine despite all of that happening? Maybe I am not understanding you correctly...

I agree 1000% that this would have made a huge difference.

JB16057 said:

Here is what Trump said about the vaccine:

"I would recommend it and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly," Trump told "Fox News Primetime."
Still, he continued: "But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works."

The people that are choosing to not take the vaccine are not going to listen to anyone.

This was in March and to my memory, was the only time he touted the vaccine after the election.

Right, so why isn't he pushing it? I think it's because it runs against the tide of his supporters. That's why I don't think he's a thought leader in the party, he's a mouthpiece of the grass roots

It might go against them now, sure. However most of them were wanting to give Trump all the credit in the world for Operation Warp Speed. So if Trump had been vocal about them actually getting it from the start, I’m pretty sure a whole bunch of them would’ve gotten it by now and it would not have such a negative connotation with those people. These people rarely, if ever, disagree with Trump on anything.

mrussel1 · July 2021

The Juggler said:

mrussel1 said:

RunIntoTheRain said:

The Juggler said:

mrussel1 said:

The Juggler said:

These people are crazy.

All Trump has/had to do is/was tout the very vaccines he wanted credit for making so quickly and tens of thousands more people (maybe hundreds of thousands) might very well still be alive and life would be even more back to normal by this point.

This tells you something important.. Trump is a mouthpiece for the uneducated (fools), he's not necessarily the leader of them. He channels them, he doesn't influence them.

I think he has a lot of influence. My point was if he was vocal about getting the vaccine and vocal about the benefits and how everyone should get them, you'd likely have millions more lining up for the shots and tens of thousands less dead. Just imagine if he got his shot on television, imagine him on commercials touting the vaccine's benefits, imagine him talking about that nonstop instead of the election he lost by 7 million votes.

You're saying you think they still would not trust the vaccine despite all of that happening? Maybe I am not understanding you correctly...

I agree 1000% that this would have made a huge difference.

JB16057 said:

Here is what Trump said about the vaccine:

"I would recommend it and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly," Trump told "Fox News Primetime."
Still, he continued: "But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works."

The people that are choosing to not take the vaccine are not going to listen to anyone.

This was in March and to my memory, was the only time he touted the vaccine after the election.

Right, so why isn't he pushing it? I think it's because it runs against the tide of his supporters. That's why I don't think he's a thought leader in the party, he's a mouthpiece of the grass roots

It might go against them now, sure. However most of them were wanting to give Trump all the credit in the world for Operation Warp Speed. So if Trump had been vocal about them actually getting it from the start, I’m pretty sure a whole bunch of them would’ve gotten it by now and it would not have such a negative connotation with those people. These people rarely, if ever, disagree with Trump on anything.

When he showed some squishiness on the DACA kids, the right wing went crazy. Comments on Breitbart were all about "I'm threw (sic) with him...", etc. He has to stay in line with the base.

mrussel1 · July 2021

The intellectual lead (I use that term loosely) is Tucker.

GOP

Comments

Under Trump, Republicans touted the coronavirus vaccines. Now, under Biden, they’re questioning them.

DeSantis sells ‘Don’t Fauci My Florida’ merch as new coronavirus cases near highest in nation

Categories