WATCH: Kamala Harris ‘Would Not Trust Donald Trump’ On Rushed Coronavirus Vaccine: ‘I Will Not Take His Word For It’
Vice presidential candidate and California Senator Kamala Harris says she wouldn’t trust President Donald Trump’s word alone if a coronavirus vaccine were rushed out before election day, telling CNN she would need to see more credible information on safety and efficacy.
Amid concern over the FDA’s decision to potentially approve a vaccine before trials are complete, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Sen. Harris about her confidence in such a vaccine.
“Do you trust that, in the situation where we’re in now, that the public health experts and the scientists will get the last word on the efficacy of a vaccine?” Bash asked.
“If past is prologue, they will not, they will be muscled, they’ll be suppressed. They will be silenced,” Harris said. “Because he’s looking at an election coming up in less than 60 days, and he’s grasping for whatever he can get to pretend that he has been a leader on this issue when he has not.”
“Let’s just say there’s a vaccine that has approved and even distributed before the election. Would you get it?”
“Well, I think that’s going to be an issue for all of us,” Harris said. “I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump. And it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about. I will not take his word for it.”
Sen. Harris is not alone. Polling consistently shows a significant majority of Americans are skeptical of an early vaccine, and most would not take the immunization immediately.
At a press conference earlier this week, former Vice President Joe Biden also expressed concern over the skepticism, telling reporters “When enormous pressure is put on professionals in the administration from the CDC to NIH, across the board, why do we think, God willing when we get a vaccine that is good, that works, why do we do we think the public’s going to line up, to be be willing to take the injection?”
The full Kamala Harris interview will air Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
