‘I Saved 100 Million Lives’: Trump Defends Covid Vaccines When Pushed Hard By Interviewer Questioning Their Safety
Former President Donald Trump called into David Brody’s Water Cooler program on hard-right Real America’s Voice on Monday and, while the conversation was very friendly, Brody pushed Trump hard on the Covid-19 vaccines.
“The CDC is now saying they’re concerned about a link to strokes and the vaccine,” Brody began, citing recent news from the Centers for Disease Control.
“We’ve also seen significant spikes in Covid-19 deaths after countries introduced the Covid vaccines. We have these sudden death spikes as well,” Brody continued, repeating a widely shared but debunked claim.
“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?” asked Brody, who is also a regular on the Christian Broadcast Network.
“Well, what I did is, first of all, there were no mandates with me, and I had absolutely no mandates,” Trump replied. “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,” Trump continued, defending his vaccine approval process.
“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 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
“What about the safety aspect? That’s what people are concerned about. Now. Do you have some concerns about the safety of these vaccines?” followed up Brody as Trump initially skirted the question to discuss mandates.
“Well, I always do. But you have to understand there are the pros and cons,” Trump replied.
“You can read some reports saying it was the greatest thing that’s ever happened and we saved tens of millions of lives. Then you read other reports. You say there were some problems with the vaccines in terms of certain things, but relatively small numbers. But, you know, you have many reports that say the vaccine saved tens of millions of lives, that without the vaccines you would have you know, you would have had a thing like we had in 1917 where perhaps 100 million people died,” Trump concluded.
Watch the full clip above
