During a White House press briefing on Monday, a reporter argued that anti-vaxx Trump voters are refusing to get inoculated because the former president allegedly did not get enough “credit” for the vaccine, only to have his claim quickly dismantled by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
The reporter asked if the White House would “consider highlighting or acknowledging, in a greater way,” Trump’s “role in creating the vaccines,” as a means “to assure the rural voters who still support President Trump and are hesitant to get the vaccine.”
Psaki was not buying the reporter’s claims, which did not appear to be based on any facts.
“Do you have data to suggest that that’s the issue that’s preventing people from getting vaccinated?” she calmly asked.
The reporter, refusing to let go of a losing argument, offered that, “the communities that have the lowest vaccination rates did seem to vote for President Trump.”
But Psaki wouldn’t let him get away with that presmise and decided to give a lesson in basic logic.
“Okay, but I what I’m asking you is if information related to whether or not the former president got credit is leading people not to get vaccinated, or is it information like ‘microchips in vaccines,’ and it causing fertility issues, causing health issues, because you’re drawing a few conclusions there that I haven’t seen in data but maybe you have that information to provide?”
“I think it’s just it’s an issue,” the reporter continued. “I mean I think it’s a common sense that these are people who supported him. These are people who are hesitant to get vaccinated. I don’t think it takes a lot to draw the conclusion.”
It actually does, and Psaki was not going to go along with the demand that the Biden administration hand Trump unearned credit for developing the vaccine.
“Our objective is to ensure all Americans will get vaccinated, that would be of course, we love that, Democrats, Republicans, independents, It’s not a political issue to us the virus does not look at people’s party affiliation, we recognize that the President’s going to govern for all people. What I’m conveying to you is you’re jumping to a few conclusions that I don’t think data backs up in terms of what the impacts are and what we’re seeing is that misinformation, traveling in a range of means, whether it’s social media platforms some forms of media, some elected officials, is having the biggest factor as it relates to individuals not getting vaccinated because people don’t have access to accurate information, go ahead.
Psaki: What I’m asking you is if information related to whether or not the former President got credit is leading people not to get vaccinated… pic.twitter.com/M82veiA7sf
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 19, 2021
