For most of modern history, people living in America did not have to worry that the president of the United States was trying to get them killed. Of course, that all changed with the election of Donald Trump, who spent his final year in office actively spreading COVID-19 and who left Washington with a 400,000-person body count. Instead of doing something about the highly contagious virus when he was first warned about it, Trump insisted on acting like everything was fine in a (failed) attempt to keep the stock market calm and lied to the public despite being fully aware of how very deadly the coronavirus was, to say nothing about the fact that he spent months mocking masks, cut medical experts out of the government’s response to a public health crisis, and let his idiot son-in-law handle the once-in-a-generation pandemic. Anyway, now he’s pissed over supposedly not getting enough credit for the COVID vaccines.
In a pathetic—even for him!—statement distributed by his comms team—because, as you may recall, he’s permanently banned from Twitter—Trump told the public: “I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn’t president, you wouldn‘t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!”
So, a few thoughts: (1) You can tell this was dictated verbatim based on the run-on sentence, racist aside, description of a vaccine as “beautiful,” and random quotation marks. Also, the claim that a vaccine would never have been created were it not for him, which of course is not true at all. Did he help things along? Yes, he did. Did his administration also falsely taken credit for the Pfizer vaccine, which they played no role in developing; fail to obtain additional doses of the drug when they had the chance; and epically f–k up the distribution of the whole thing? Yes, to all of the above.
More recently, at a crucial moment in the pandemic, it appears he declined to help convince eligible Americans to actually get the vaccine and help move the country toward herd immunity, presumably because he can’t stand the idea of life returning to normal on Joe Biden’s watch. In an ad campaign released on Thursday, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter—i.e. every living former president besides Trump—urged people to get the lifesaving shot(s), telling them, “In order to get rid of this pandemic, it’s important for our fellow citizens to get vaccinated…. So roll up your sleeve and do your part.”
While the 45th president and Melania Trump were vaccinated at the White House in January, they said nothing about their jabs at the time. According to NBC News, Trump “did not allow any official images to be taken of him being vaccinated, a person familiar with the matter said, and he has shown no interest in being an active part of the elite club of his living predecessors.” That’s unsurprising given his historic levels of pettiness, though still deeply unfortunate because he could likely convince his skeptical supporters to help hasten the demise of COVID-19, but the petty little bitch he is has chosen not to.
In related news, back in November Geraldo Rivera proposed naming one of the vaccines after Trump as a way of honoring him and—while we maintain it would only be appropriate should one of the drug manufacturers develop a version of the vaccine that’s administered rectally—that’s clearly the level of worship Trump thinks he deserves.
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Matthew McConaughey might run for governor of Texas
Yes:
On a recent episode of Crime Stoppers of Houston’s The Balanced Voice podcast, McConaughey told host Rania Mankarious that running for governor is ”a true consideration.” ”I’m looking into now again, what is my leadership role?” he said. “Because I do think I have some things to teach and share, and what is my role? What’s my category in my next chapter of life that I’m going into?”
On the one hand, it’s difficult to imagine anyone doing a worse job than the current guy. On the other, someone with actual experience might be preferable for the job.
GOP representative just comes out and admits Republicans are hard at work suppressing votes
Marjorie Taylor Greene boasts of electoral success in a race for which she ran unopposed
Elsewhere!
Biden to push for all adult Americans to be eligible for the vaccine no later than May 1 (Washington Post)
DOJ seeks to build large conspiracy case against Oath Keepers for Jan. 6 riot (Washington Post)
“It felt like the world was falling apart”: An oral history of the day that changed America (NBC News)
Novavax vaccine 96% effective against original coronavirus, 86% vs. British variant in U.K. trial (Reuters)
Cuomo impeachment probe authorized by New York Assembly speaker as sexual harassment claims grow (CNBC)
Military leaders thrash Tucker Carlson after comments about female troops (Politico)
Mexico’s move to greenlight marijuana may pressure Biden (Politico)
JPG File Sells for $69 Million (NYT)
Scientists want to send 6.7M sperm samples to the moon (NYP)
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