In a recent interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, the host gave Donald Trump yet another golden opportunity to reflect with some degree of insight and self-criticism on the COVID Public Health™ response he oversaw, particularly his avid self-congratulation on Operation Warp Speed. Trump has publicly bragged about this incessantly on the campaign trail, as recently as this month.
JUST NOW: Iowa voter tells Trump "we have lost people because you supported the jab."
Trump responds by praising the COVID mRNA shots, doesn't acknowledge any of the adverse effects.
"I was able to do something that nobody else could have done…There's a big portion of the… pic.twitter.com/rfuj4jqybS
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 1, 2023
“In your mind, did the COVID vaccine work?” Baier asked.
Instead of reaching for the life preserver, Trump doubled down on his standard line.
“It’s such an interesting question,” Trump begins. The hedging is immediately obvious. “Not only that, I also did the Regenerons of the world… We did a tremendous job on that… As you know, I got [the vaccines] done in nine months and it was supposed to take anywhere from 5-12 years… I really don’t want to talk about it because, as a Republican, it’s not a great thing to talk about because, for some reason, it’s just not.”
He then ridiculously asserted that the FDA “doesn’t like him too much” because… he got their highly profitable product approved through an expedited regulatory process, which had never been done before because it compromises patient safety?
Make it make sense.
Baier: In your mind did the Covid vaccine work?
Trump: It's such an interesting question….As a Republican, it's not a great thing to talk about because, for some reason, it's just not. pic.twitter.com/0ljO3D39oR
— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) June 20, 2023
Nothing at all whatsoever about the government’s COVID-19 response was “tremendous” or anything like that. It was horrendous, costing incalculable casualties in the form of lost experiences, despair, isolation, loneliness, suicide, destroyed businesses, authoritarian mandates out of North Korea, ripping apart the social fabric, etc.
No one who had any hand in it, including Trump, should say anything other than “I’m deeply sorry” for the government’s response whenever questioned.
Leaders take accountability for their past mistakes and move on. Insecure narcissists rewrite history and prevaricate and lie.
Related: Did Trump Just Convict Himself on Fox News?
The oddest thing is that, as can be gleaned from Trump’s answer, he understands how unpopular his continued championing of his shots as some sort of godsend is with his own base.
From an electoral standpoint, not to mention a moral one, this is a stupid strategy. Precisely zero propagandized, The View-consuming #Resistance liberals with Anthony Fauci shrines in their front yards are going to switch sides to endorse Trump in the general election because he praised their precious COVID shots. It’s not even close enough to overcome the Trump Derangement Syndrome.
On the other hand, I know several people personally, along with many more accounts relayed to me secondhand, for whom COVID vaccine apologism is a red line they won’t abide in Trump. Many of these individuals could have once been described as Trump evangelists, previously willing to forgive all of his many flaws, both personal and political.
The COVID shots are different because, in many people’s minds who have been paying close attention for the past three years, the combination of lockdowns, mask requirements, and vaccine mandates represent the biggest criminal enterprise certainly in recent history, if not in world history. Unlike every other scandal and smear Trump has endured since 2015, there’s no blustering his way through the criticism on this issue.
Trump has to win the primary before he can stomp Biden in the election. And if he keeps up his self-aggrandizing praise for his Operation Warp Speed travesty, it’s going to cost him votes — perhaps not enough to cost the nomination, but perhaps so.
