Former President Donald Trump at CPAC 2021 on Sunday night went all-in on taking credit for the coronavirus vaccine rushed out at "warp speed" and admitted to pressuring the FDA to approve it, despite potential risks.
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Transcript:
When I left office, and we’re very proud of this because this was something that they said could not be done. The FDA said it, everybody said it, any article that you read said it. Couldn’t be done. It would be years and years. I handed the new administration what everyone is now calling a modern day medical miracle. Some say it’s the greatest thing to happen in hundreds of years, hundreds of years. Two vaccines produced in record time with numerous others on the way, including the Johnson and Johnson vaccine that was approved just yesterday.
And therapeutic relief, also, if you’re sick. If you’re sick, we have things now that are incredible. What has taken place over the last year under our administration would have taken any other president at least five years. And we got it done in nine months. Everyone says five years, five years. Can you imagine if you had to go through what all of the countries of the world who are now getting the vaccine or soon will be getting it from various companies. But can you imagine if all of those countries had to go through what they’ve been going through over the last year? You’d lose hundreds of millions of people.
I pushed the FDA like they have never been pushed before. They told me that loud and clear. They have never been pushed like I pushed them. I didn’t like them at all. But once we got it done, I said I now love you very much. What the Trump administration has done with vaccines has in many respects, perhaps saved large portions of the world. Not only our country, but large portions of the world.
Not only did we push the FDA far beyond what the bureaucrats wanted to do, we also put up billions and billions of dollars, $10 billion, to produce the vaccines before we knew they were going to work. It was called a calculated bet or a calculated risk. We took a risk because if we didn’t do that, you still wouldn’t have the vaccines. You wouldn’t have them for a long time. So think of that. We took this bet, we made a bet because we feel we’re on a certain track. But you’d be starting to make them right now. It’d be a long time before you ever saw. It takes 60 to a hundred days to manufacture and inspect new doses and that means that 100% of the increased availability that we have now was initiated by our administration -- 100%.
In fact, the director of National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, he’s Fauci’s boss, actually. I think he’s a Democrat too, by the way. Recently said that our operation warp speed was absolutely breathtaking -- and that the Trump administration deserves full credit. Which we do. And as conservatives and Republicans, never forget that we did it. Never let them take the credit because they don’t deserve the credit. They just followed now, they’re following our plan, but this has been something that they really call it an absolute miracle.
Joe Biden is only implementing the plan that we put in place. And if we had an honest media, which we don’t. They would say it loud and clear. By the time I left that magnificent house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, almost 20 million Americans had already been vaccinated. 1.5 million doses were administered on my final day alone. 1.5 million in a day. Yet Biden said just a few days ago that when he got here, meaning the White House, there was no vaccine. He said there’s no vaccine. Oh good. Say it again, Joe.
Now I don’t think he said that, frankly, in a malicious way. I really don’t. I actually believe he said that because he didn’t really know what the hell was happening. But never let them forget, this was us. We did this. And the distribution is moving along according to our plan. And it’s moving along really well. We had the military, what they’ve done, our generals and all of the people what they've done is incredible. But remember, we took care of a lot of people. Including, I guess on December 21st, we took care of Joe Biden, because he got his shot. He got his vaccine. He forgot. It shows you how unpainful that vaccine shot is. So everybody go get your shot.
As vaccine-hesitant Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a private meeting with fellow Facebook employees, "we just don't know the long-term side effects of basically modifying people's DNA and RNA" through mRNA vaccines.
"I Share Some Caution on this [Vaccine] Because We Just Don't Know the Long-Term Side Effects of Basically Modifying People's DNA and RNA"
BREAKING: White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has pressed FDA chief Stephen Hahn to grant an emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine by the end of Friday, or face possible dismissal. https://t.co/mODWIick0K
Despite pushing for everyone to take the vaccine, Trump himself has still not taken the vaccine. Trump claimed initially months ago he was eager to take it but then changed course in December and said he looks forward to taking it later "at the appropriate time."
Trump has been extremely skeptical of vaccines in the past and proposed teaming up with Robert F. Kennedy Jr to investigate vaccine safety -- but he dropped that all after getting elected.
If you believe Gallup polls, which I generally do not, half of Republicans said late last month that they wouldn't take an "FDA-approved" vaccine if it was given to them immediately at no cost (these vaccines were only approved through an "Emergency Use Authorization" so the question itself is biased):
If the vaccine works out fine and dandy, perhaps Trump will receive some of the credit.
If the vaccine doesn't work out, you can be damn sure he's going to receive all of the blame.
Former President Donald Trump at CPAC 2021 on Sunday night went all-in on taking credit for the coronavirus vaccine rushed out at "warp speed" and admitted to pressuring the FDA to approve it, despite potential risks. 
