GOP upset Biden didn't spend more time in his speech thanking Trump

Republican lawmakers are up in arms that President Joe Biden didn’t give credit to Donald Trump for the smooth rollout of coronavirus vaccinations during Biden’s joint address to Congress Wednesday night, falsely claiming that Trump was responsible for the more than 200 million doses that have been distributed across the country so far.

Nearly two-dozen House Republicans have lodged the complaint after Biden in his speech touted his success ramping up the vaccination effort, which was in a nascent phase when he took office on Jan. 20.

“When I was sworn in, less than 1% of seniors were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. One hundred days later, nearly 70% of seniors are fully protected,” Biden said in his speech. “Senior deaths from COVID-19 are down 80% since January. Down 80%. And, more than half of all adults in America have gotten at least one shot.”

Yet Republicans say Biden doesn’t any deserve credit for the surge in the vaccination rate. Instead, they’re saying it’s Trump’s accomplishment because he launched Operation Warp Speed, which provided funding to some drugmakers to help develop vaccines for the deadly coronavirus.

But according to the New York Times, the most widely distributed vaccine was made by Pfizer-BioNTech — which was not part of Operation Warp Speed.

“We were never part of the Warp Speed,” Kathrin Jansen, a Pfizer senior vice president and head of vaccine research and development, told the New York Times in November. “We have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone.”

Sources within the Biden White House said Trump had no plan for the vaccine rollout when he left office, leaving them forced to start ‘from scratch.’

Before he left office, Trump had fallen far short of his goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020. Just 2.8 million people had gotten at least one dose of the vaccine by then, the Washington Post reported.

But that didn’t stop Republicans from demanding Trump get credit for the exponential increase in the vaccination rate that Biden has overseen after he helped broker deals with other pharmaceutical companies to boost production of the vaccines and utilized the Defense Production Act to help ramp up supply.

“@JoeBiden’s biggest accomplishment in his first 100 days has been the vaccine rollout — and that’s thanks to President Trump,” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), one of the ringleaders of the effort to overturn Biden’s victory on the day of the Capitol insurrection, tweeted during the joint address. 

Other insurrection ringleaders — such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) — made similar comments.

“We only have the vaccine because of President Trump and Operation Warp Speed. Joe Biden did nothing,” Greene tweeted.

Many more tweets echoed those same sentiments.

“President Biden bragging about the number of vaccine shots…thank you President Trump and Operation Warp Speed!” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) tweeted.

“We must give credit where credit is due. Thank you, President Trump for your work in getting vaccines quickly in the arms of Americans,” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) tweeted.

And Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) tweeted: “President Biden should have taken the high road and thanked President Trump for Operation Warp Speed.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.