Trump Campaign Reportedly Plans to Bash DeSantis For Vaccinating Elderly — Despite Trump’s Continued Support For Vaccines

Former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign is building an “opposition research” file on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) focused around hitting the popular Republican governor for his early promotion of Covid-19 vaccinations to the elderly, reported the New York Times on Tuesday evening.

The report from veteran Trump-era journalist Jonathan Swan and congressional reporter Luke Broadwater quotes Trump insiders detailing some of the material being collected to attack DeSantis in a potential primary showdown with Trump.

“In a sign of how toxic the conversation about the coronavirus vaccines has become within the GOP, Mr. Trump’s allies are building a file of “opposition research” on Mr. DeSantis that consists of videos of him praising the vaccine in its early days,” reported the Times.

The footage being gathered reportedly includes “news B-roll of DeSantis presiding over vaccinations of elderly people,” according to the Times, which cited an anonymous Trump ally.

The report adds “to emphasize the point, the Trump ally texted several photographs of Mr. DeSantis standing over a woman getting vaccinated. ‘He personally wheeled her to get jabbed,’ the ally added, sending another photograph of Mr. DeSantis pushing an older woman in a wheelchair.”

Ironically, while trying to tarnish DeSantis’s image as anti-Covid public safety measures crusader, Trump has been a steadfast booster of the Covid-19 vaccines, which his administration fast-tracked with “Operation Warp Speed.”

In mid-January, Trump was pushed hard by right-wing media personality David Brody who asked the former president, “Look, I know you take credit for getting the vaccine to the American people in record time. I got that. Will you acknowledge now, though, that the Covid-19 vaccines were not as safer, effective as we were told by the medical community at the time?”

“Well, what I did is, first of all, there were no mandates with me, and I had absolutely no mandates,” Trump replied, adding:

And the governors were allowed to do what they want the most. Most Republican governors did the right thing and most Democrat governors did. You know, with the lockdowns and all the other things they did, including their views of the vaccine, what I did, I was able to get something approved that has proven to save a lot of lives.

Some people say I saved 100 million lives worldwide, but I was able to get that done in nine months versus five years to twelve years if it ever got [done at all]. I got the FDA to do things that they it it was pretty amazing what we were able to do.

“But as far as using it, as far as utilization, I never demanded that anybody use it. I never had a mandate. And I think that’s very important to know. And I never had anybody for instance, when I said, you know, I never said close up, I never said we’re going to close our country,” Trump added.

“A lot of Republicans, Florida did close for a period of time, as you know. But a lot of states, a lot of states run by Republican governors didn’t close at all. And that was okay with me and I let them make that decision,” Trump continued, throwing some shade at DeSantis.

The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson commented on the extraordinary political maneuvering surrounding the Covid-19 vaccines.

“Operation Warp Speed is one of the most successful government programs in modern history, likely saving hundreds of thousands (and possibly millions) of lives,” Thompson wrote in reply to Swan’s article.

“And it’s basically a political orphan. Dems don’t really talk about it and the GOP actively disparages its product,” he concluded.

__