Donald Trump went on the attack in his response to Joe Biden’s speech to Congress, ripping his successor for not recognizing his accomplishments, including the speedy development of Covid-19 vaccines.
In a Thursday interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Trump blasted the current administration for blaming him for issues like the southern border crisis – which he said not nearly enough time was dedicated to in Biden’s address – a situation the current administration is blaming on the actions of the former president’s time in office.
“It’s ridiculous. Obviously, they’re very ungracious people,” Trump said. He then turned his attention to his role in speeding up the development and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
“I did the vaccine. They like to take the vaccine. But even the fake news isn’t giving them credit for that,” he said.
We did the vaccine, saved tens of millions of lives throughout the world by coming up with a vaccine. If I weren’t president, vaccine, you wouldn’t have a vaccine for five years, three to five years would be the minimum. I got it done in less than nine months. And that’s only because of me.
He went on to tout the success of Operation Warp Speed, which streamlined the development and approval of vaccines, and said Biden simply kept his “delivery system” in place to take credit for it. He did, however, dismiss the mandated pause on Johnson & Johnson vaccines – which has now been lifted – over multiple cases of blood clot developments as a “stupid thing to do.”
At another point during the interview, the former president doubled down on taking credit for vaccines available in the US, dubbing himself “the father of the vaccine,” and claimed he’s even been asked to participate in public service announcements to promote people getting inoculated.
“They want me to do public service messages and everything about everybody taking the vaccine,” he said after claiming the Johnson & Johnson pause helped fuel vaccine hesitancy.
And look, I guess in a certain way I’m the father of the vaccine because I was the one that pushed it. To get it done in less than nine months was a miracle.
In his Fox interview, Trump also addressed the FBI raid this week on his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
“Rudy Giuliani is a great patriot,” he said. “He does these things – he just loves this country. And they raid his apartment?! It’s like, so unfair! And such a double standard like I don’t think anybody’s ever seen before. It’s very, very unfair.”
He went on to claim ignorance as to why the raid occurred.
“I don’t know what they’re looking for, what they’re doing,” Trump said. “They say it had to do with filings of various papers, lobbying filings.”
The raid on Giuliani’s New York City apartment and office was part of an investigation into whether the former mayor violated lobbying laws, according to a report from the New York Times, and authorities are looking into his dealings in Ukraine on behalf of Trump’s presidential campaign.
A lawyer for Giuliani confirmed the raid, but referred to it as “legal thuggery.”
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