Operation Warp Speed Chief Says Trump ‘Has Never Been Actively Involved’ As President Takes Credit For Vaccines
Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui downplayed President Donald Trump’s involvement in the coronavirus vaccine breakthroughs on MSNBC, Monday claiming that the president “has never been very actively involved.”
Slaoui told Andrea Mitchell that “the vaccine is going to help us get back to some level of normalcy,” noting, “The vaccine will really become effective and we can go back to total normalcy when the overwhelming majority of people will have been immunized and the circulation of the virus will go down.”
Asked if he had had any communication from Trump, however, Slaoui replied, “The president has never been very actively involved.”
“As I’ve said many times, we’ve had no interference one way or the other,” he claimed, concluding, “We have informed him from time-to-time.”
Earlier Monday, Trump tried to take credit for the vaccine development.
“Please remember that these great discoveries … all took place on my watch!” Trump tweeted.
Another Vaccine just announced. This time by Moderna, 95% effective. For those great “historians”, please remember that these great discoveries, which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2020
During the interview, Slaoui also revealed, “From day one, I said, the key for success of this is two things. One is to have a laser-sharp focus on our objective, which is to save people’s life. That’s what we do day and night. And the second one is to minimize to anything… any kind of political interference.”
“And I made sure to keep myself out of that,” he insisted.
Watch above via MSNBC.
