Why don’t you be a patriot? Protect other people!: Joe Biden says he doesn’t understand ‘macho’ thinking of vaccine skeptics after Donald Trump urges MAGA-world to get shots
- President Joe Biden said he doesn’t understand the ‘macho’ thinking of vaccine skeptics
- ‘Well, why don’t you be a patriot? Protect other people,’ Biden encouraged during his interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos
- Biden’s comments came after former President Donald Trump told his supporters to get the vaccine during a Fox News interview Tuesday
President Joe Biden said he doesn’t understand the ‘macho’ thinking of vaccine skeptics, as former President Donald Trump urged MAGA-world to get shots.
‘I just don’t understand this sort of macho thing about, “I’m not gonna get the vaccine. I have a right as an American, my freedom to not do it,”‘ Biden said in his ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos. ‘Well, why don’t you be a patriot? Protect other people.’
Trump brought up that he respected people’s freedom, but he also encouraged Americans to get the vaccine and admitted some anti-vaxxers were part of his fan-base.
President Joe Biden said he didn’t understand the ‘macho’ thinking of vaccine skeptics in a new interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos
‘I would, I would recomment it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people who don’t want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly,’ the ex-president told Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo Tuesday night.
Trump had called into her show for an interview.
‘But again we have our freedoms and we have to live by that and I agree with that also,’ Trump added.
Trump and his allies knocked Biden for not giving the former president enough credit for Operation Warp Speed, the government initiative to get quick COVID-19 vaccines.
The Pfizer vaccine wasn’t fully part of that project, but Moderna’s successful shot was.
Biden and members of his administration have hit Trump for not having a fullly-formed vaccine distribution plan – and for politicizing aspects of fighting the virus, like wearing masks.
Biden made the ‘macho’ comment after Stephanopoulos asked how he got politics about of this vaccine talk.
‘I honest to God thought we had it out,’ Biden replied. ‘I honest to God thought that, once we guaranteed we had enough vaccine for everybody, things would start to calm down.’
‘Well, they have calmed down a great deal,’ he added.
But polling this week showed that 49 per cent of Republican men said they wouldn’t take the coronavirus vaccine.
Biden previously argued that local doctors and clergy could play a part in getting those Americans to accept the vaccine – and may be better surrogates than Trump.