Former President Donald Trump continued to hammer the message that the COVID-19 vaccine and boosters are effective, though he remained resistant to vaccine mandates.
Trump appeared on YouTube outlet Right Side Broadcasting Network Thursday night, where he continued to support the inoculations.
He noted that the vaccine has ‘saved millions of lives. We’re very proud of the vaccines.’
However, he continued to say he was against President Joe Biden‘s vaccine mandate.
‘But the mandates, they should not be—and they are trying to enforce these mandates, and it’s so bad for people and for our country,’ Trump said.
Trump’s candidates have been controversial in conservative circles, with some of his biggest fans questioning his judgement.
Conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root appeared on Alex Jones’ InfoWars earlier this week where he joined a chorus of fellow Trump supporters who are now turning on the Republican leader over his ardent support for vaccines.
‘He needs an intervention from a friend, because he’s the greatest president of my lifetime, I love him, I will always love him,’ Root said on Tuesday.
The radio host, who was the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential nominee in 2008, went on to say Trump has been ‘right on everything except this issue.’
‘He’s so horribly wrong on this issue, and the best way to put it — ironically — is he’s dead wrong, ’cause people are dying left and right,’ Root continued, claiming they died of the vaccines.
He said Trump’s embrace of the jabs amounted to ‘political suicide.’
Jones, who also criticized Trump for his heel-turn on getting vaccinated, said he felt ‘like a woman scorned’ by the ex-president.
He said Trump’s promotion of vaccines made him ‘feel like a family member is dying, quite frankly,’ a potential sign that his base’s dissatisfaction could force them to look to someone else in 2024.
Trump was heckled in Dallas earlier in December for confirming he received his COVID-19 booster shot.
Trump appeared onstage with ex-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly for the final stop of their ‘History Tour.’
‘Both the president and I are vaxxed,’ O’Reilly said. ‘Did you get the booster?’ he asked Trump.
Trump answered, ‘yes,’ to which O’Reilly replied, ‘I got it too,’ as members of the crowd started to yell.
‘Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t … no, no, no,’ Trump responded, wagging his hand at a section of the crowd. ‘There’s a very tiny group over there,’ the ex-president said, pointing.
Trump had encouraged the crowd to ‘take credit’ for the vaccine. ‘You’re playing right into their hands when you’re sort of like ‘oh the vaccine,” the ex-president said.
Data shows that Republicans are much more skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccines than their Democratic counterparts.
And while Trump has touted his Operation Warp Speed – the public-private partnership his White House spurred for swift COVID-19 vaccine development – he’s also allowed anti-vaccination sentiment to fester by giving it some cover.
He did so Sunday by telling the audience that they didn’t have to get their shots.
‘If you don’t want to take it you shouldn’t be forced to take it,’ Trump said. ‘No mandates,’ he said to cheers.
Trump then doubled down on his remarks in an interview with conservative commentator Candace Owens.
‘I came up with a vaccine – with three vaccines,’ Trump told the Daily Wire host, referring to the development of the Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines while he was still president. ‘All are very, very good. Came up with three of them in less than nine months. It was supposed to take five to 12 years.’
Owens interjected: ‘Yet more people have died under COVID this year, by the way, under Joe Biden, then under you and more people took the vaccine this year. So people are questioning how –’
But the former president interrupted Owens, assuring: ‘Oh no, the vaccine work (sic), but some people aren’t the ones. The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine. But it’s still their choice.’
‘And if you take the vaccine, you’re protected,’ he continued. ‘Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it’s a very minor form. People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine.’