Former President Donald Trump is slamming politicians who refuse to say whether they have received COVID-19 booster shots as “gutless.”
“You gotta say it. Whether you had it or not, say it,” Trump said in an interview that aired Tuesday night on the conservative One America News Network.
Trump, who was booed last month by supporters after revealing he had gotten a booster shot, has become increasingly vocal in calling out those who have questioned the vaccines’ efficacy and safety. It’s a change in posture for Trump as he eyes another run for the White House and faces potential competition from a long list of possible Republican challengers.
Even though the vaccines were developed during the Trump administration, they remain deeply unpopular with large segments of the Republican base, fueled in part by rampant disinformation. Trump, while in office, consistently downplayed the risk posed by COVID-19 and he received his vaccine privately, even as other members of his administration were inoculated in public to help boost confidence in the shots.
“Well, I’ve taken it. I’ve had the booster,” Trump said in the interview. “I watched a couple of politicians be interviewed and one of the questions was, ‘Did you get the booster?’ …. And they, ‘Oh, oh,’ they’re answering it — like in other words, the answer is ‘Yes,’ but they don’t want to say it. Because they’re gutless.”
Trump did not name names, and his spokespeople did not immediately respond to questions about which politicians he was referencing. But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a rising star in the Republican Party who is often mentioned as a possible 2024 presidential contender, has notably declined to say whether he has received a booster.
“So I’ve done whatever I did, the normal shot. And, you know, that, at the end of the day, is people’s individual decisions about what they want to do,” DeSantis told Fox News Channel host Maria Bartiromo last month.
DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Many House Republicans, including top Trump allies, have also declined to disclose their vaccination status. Some such as Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene are open about their refusal to get it.
By criticizing other politicians reluctant to disclose their vaccination status, Trump appears to be looking to turn the shots into a political issue that allows him to promote his administration’s success in facilitating their development while creating a contrast with other possible 2024 GOP candidates loath to upset the base.
In recent weeks, the highly contagious omicron variant has driven record case counts, overwhelmed hospitals and disrupted essential services because of staffing shortages. The booster has been shown to significantly bolster immune protection against the variant, and the Biden White House has urged Americans to take the shots.
In an interview last month, Trump seemed to acknowledge the risk many of his supporters were taking by not getting vaccinated, though he has repeatedly said he is against mandating the shots.
“This was going to ravage the country far beyond what it is right now. Take credit for it. Take credit for it. … Don’t let them take it away. Don’t take it away from ourselves,” he said in December during an appearance with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly when Trump first revealed he had received the booster and was booed by some in the crowd.
In an interview with conservative commentator Candace Owens, Trump stressed how well the vaccines work at preventing hospitalization and serious illness.
“The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take their vaccine,” he told her. “People aren’t dying when they take their vaccine.”
Owens, a longtime Trump supporter, later sought to undermine Trump’s support of the vaccines in the interview by pointing to his age, 75.
But in the OAN interview, Trump did not relent.
“The fact is that I think the vaccine has saved tens of millions of people throughout the world. I have had absolutely no side effects,” he said. Still, he repeated his opinion that young people, for whom serious complications for the virus are rare, should not be vaccinated, even though health officials have urged everyone who is eligible to get the shots.
Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October 2020, weeks before the presidential election, and received experimental monoclonal antibody treatment.
(AP)
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9 Responses
Why did he not get it in public? Hypocrite!
Trump is smart enough to realize that Republicans are dying from COVID while Democrats aren’t, because Democrats are getting vaccinated and boosted. Owens, Greene, De Santis, and the other Republican anti-vaxxers just aren’t very bright.
I’ve had the vaccine! In fact I’ve had the vaccine like nobody else has had the vaccine! In fact I’ve the vaccine like nobody else has ever had the vaccine!
Listening to the TV reporter – this is where our commentators are getting their opinions from? His words were one-to-one what many people post here. Out of curiosity, could someone share – are you listening to these shows yourself? or someone sends it to you on social media? or do you here it form your friends in shul or kollel?
Trump looks different. Some sort of dangerous anger inside him is reflecting on his features. After what he said about Israel and all I really lost a lot of respect for him and realized a need for caution. He either changed or just showed his true colors.
Then again during his 2016 campaigns there were numerous “marketing mixups” when portraying SS soldiers on his ad instead of American, the whole discussion with the Jewish Republican coalition saying you won’t vote for me cause you control politicians with your money and so on, and the retweeting of anti semitism targeting Jewish journalists who hurt his sensitive ego so of course “all is allowed”.
I supported him but was aware of this from the beginning even though all the frum brainwashed attacked me for it. And after claiming Israel dragged him into killing irans general and he “feels uncomfortable about it”, and suddenly the Palis want peace and Israel are the ones who don’t and Abbas is a father figure to him, just shows that once someone hurts his ego he will flip a 180. He’s not to be trusted.
I would say the fact that he is suddenly encouraging vaccines and boosters after claiming to be against mandates proves it all further. He can be very dangerous. And the fact that he attracts such big crowds is frightening and reminiscent of other powerful and maniacal individuals.
Dear Mr Trump.
For the longest time now, every time you mouth off about some stupidity or other, you remind us why we’re so relieved that Twitter banned you. Not that they have a right to ban you, but you keep reminding us of how good a thing it is that you can’t mouth off on that popular platform. Unfortunately, you also keep it in our faces why you were such an unpopular President in spite of your enormous success with your governing policies and style. You had this country running like a fine-tuned well-oiled machine on all fronts, economic, foreign, domestic, you name it. But you were hated fiercely by the non-conservatives, and tolerated (but barely so) by everyone else, chiefly due to your BIG MOUTH (and your ego).
At the same time, it appears that since you can’t learn to control your fierce ego and over-active mouth, you can only be a dismal failure as the Republican candidate for President in 2024. As such, please crawl under a rock and hide until after January, 2024, after which you can come out and support the new Republican President, whoever he/she may be. Maybe they’ll give you a position as policy advisor to the President — albeit with a condition that you give no interviews, public speeches, or off the cuff remarks to the media during that time. You’d be a valuable asset to the country that way, but not as President!
Thank you, Mr. Trump.
Excuse me…. Everyone’s vaccine status is a private and personal choice and shouldn’t be “trumpeted” by anyone.
Imagine everyone having to announce in public:
Their vaccine/booster status
Whether their vaccine card is fake or genuine
How much weight they gained over Shabbos
If they brushed their teeth or changed their socks
Not till we get chips in our arms….
I’m sure that those politicians are currently under health audit, that’s why they can’t release their records on this issue. As the audits are over they will definitely release their health records, and be able to publicly say whether they got boosters or not.
Charliehall the liar says ” Republicans are dying from COVID while Democrats aren’t”. That is just simply not true.