‘I Am Never Going to Let Politics Enter Into That’: Adm. Giroir Denies Partisan Politics to Blame for Slow Vaccine Rollout
CNN’s Jake Tapper directly challenged Adm. Brett Giroir on Wednesday over the federal government’s slow rollout of vaccines for combating the coronavirus, prompting Giroir to deny partisan politics had contributed to the delays.
Tapper told Giroir — an assistant secretary for health and chief of Covid-19 testing — that he had spoken to several Democratic and Republican governors, and that they wanted to ask why President Donald Trump’s administration had not “push[ed] to get money to the states for vaccine distribution earlier,” noting that the Covid relief bill had included additional funding for the states, but governors were saying they needed money months ago to “ramp things up.”
Giroir replied that there was “about $3 million or some dollars” that had already been distributed to the states for vaccine distribution, but “only 10% of that has been drawn down.” So, he explained, the funding need didn’t look “urgent,” but they were obviously glad that Congress had passed the bill with additional funding so that the states had the ongoing support for the “aggressive campaign” to rollout the vaccines.
“The states do need help and this will fund them,” said Giroir, who serves on the White House Coronavirus Task Force. “We’re all on board with that … We want them to have all the resources they need to put more people on the ground to vaccinate.”
Tapper then turned to comments that Trump had made criticizing various states, playing a video clip of the president mocking Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA).
“President Trump has made no secret of the fact that he’s not happy with the states that didn’t vote for him, governors who didn’t support him,” said Tapper. “I want to make sure here, politics is not playing any sort of role when it comes to vaccine distribution or allocation at all, right? In Pennsylvania or other states that didn’t go for President Trump, they’re not going to be penalized at all, right? I wouldn’t normally even raise the question except President Trump said things like that.”
“The vaccine distribution is on a per capita basis on a population that’s over 18 years old, so there is absolutely no influence aside from just a fair and equitable distribution,” vowed Giroir.
“All these governors have my number,” he added. “They call me all the time. We work together. This is about public health, lives lost, suffering. I’m never going to let politics enter into that.”
“That’s good to know,” replied Tapper.
Watch the video above, via CNN.
