Biden Endorses Vaccine Mandates for First Responders, Mocks Opponents: ‘I Have the Freedom to Kill You With My Covid’

During President Joe Biden’s town hall on CNN Thursday night, he was asked by host Anderson Cooper whether he approves of vaccine mandates for first responders.

“As many as one in three emergency responders in some cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, right here in Baltimore, are refusing to comply with city vaccine mandates,” said the CNN host. “I’m wondering where you stand on that. Should police officers, emergency responders be mandated to get vaccines? And if not, should they be–stay at home or be let go?”

“Yes and yes,” replied Biden to applause. He then explained he waited until summer to impose a vaccine mandate on federal employees after he tried “everything else”:

By the way, I waited until July to talk about mandating because I tried everything else possible. The mandates are working… All the talk about all these folks who are going to leave the military if they’re mandated. Not true. You got about a 90-some percent vaccination rate. So the idea is that–look, the two things that concern me: one are those who just try to make this a political issue. ‘Freedom. I have the freedom to kill you with my Covid.’ No, come on. Freedom. Number one.

Number two, the second one is that, you know, the gross misinformation that’s out there. Like what they’re saying about my buddy Colin Powell, he was my friend, passed away. ‘Colin Powell was vaccinated and he still died.’ Well, he knew he had serious underlying conditions and it would be difficult–he clearly would have been gone earlier had he not gotten the vaccine, had he not gotten the shots. But my generic point is there’s so much misinformation.

Powell died of Covid-19 this week at age 84. He was fully vaccinated but had multiple myeloma, which likely inhibited his immune system’s ability to fight Covid.

Watch above via CNN.