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- Former President Donald Trump sought to blame President Biden for the United States’ reluctance to vaccinate.
- “They don’t trust the Biden administration. I don’t see any other reason,” Trump told Fox News.
- But he ignored the role of right-wing figures in undermining confidence in the shooting.
Former President Donald Trump in an interview with Fox News sought to blame President Joe Biden for the continued reluctance of millions of Americans to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
But the line of attack ignores the role Trump and his allies have played in seeking to erode confidence in the shot.
Speaking to host Sean Hannity on Thursday night, the former president said he couldn’t think of any reason other than Biden’s failures for which an estimated 68 million Americans still go unvaccinated.
“During my administration, everyone wanted the vaccine,” Trump said in a telephone interview. “There was no one saying ‘oh, gee, I don’t want to take it. “Now they say that and it’s because they don’t trust the Biden administration. I don’t see any other reason.”
“When I was there, everyone wanted it.”
The polls paint a different picture, showing that white conservatives are the most vaccine resistant group in America.
Fox News hosts and GOP commentators and lawmakers have likely played a key role in driving this hesitation, repeatedly questioning the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness and defending those who oppose it.
Trump himself first urged Americans to get vaccinated, most notably during an appearance on the Hannity show in April. He garnered rare disapproval from his supporters for his support, being booed at a rally in August where he urged people to get vaccinated.
In more recent remarks, however, Trump has taken a stance closer to the attitude of many of his supporters.
He expressed reluctance to receive a recall during an interview in September, stating “I’m not against it, but it’s probably not for me.”
He had also criticized the recall shot at the request of a Fox Business host the previous month.
The Daily Beast reported in August that it had ignored pleas from counselors to give stronger support to the vaccination campaign. It followed an April Politico story in which anonymous Trump advisers said they tried unsuccessfully to get him to be more enthusiastic about promoting jabs.
Analysts told Insider that lingering anti-vaccine sentiment on Fox was likely driven by a desire to politically harm Biden after he became president.
The Biden administration has sought to encourage people to get vaccinated. After these methods began to slow down, Biden mandated the vaccine for federal workers and contractors, as well as employees of large corporations.
Officials have been criticized in some quarters for not doing more to communicate vaccine safety and for underestimating the extent of vaccine reluctance.
The vaccines were developed as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed.
Initially, Democrats and Republicans urged Americans to get vaccinated, but in recent months it has become a politicized issue.
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