Trump's Alabama rally Covid vaccine damage control is too little too late (1573 hits)

Trump's Alabama rally Covid vaccine damage control is too little too late

Trump was booed after suggesting the Covid-19 vaccine at a rally — and he should be blamed for it.

By Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

At a rally in Cullman, Alabama, this weekend, former President Donald Trump did something that felt out of character: He encouraged his supporters to get the Covid-19 vaccination. Unfortunately, he quickly backpedaled when his gentle suggestion drew jeers and boos from the audience.

The back-and-forth was a powerful symbol of how Trump has created a longer-term public health crisis out of political expediency — and how he lacks the will to do what it will take to protect the very people he misled. What’s worse is there are signs that Republicans looking to carry on his political legacy in the White House are poised to do exactly the same thing.

At the rally, Trump said, "I believe totally in your freedoms. I do. You've got to do what you have to do," before pivoting: "But I recommend take the vaccines. I did it. It's good. Take the vaccines."

The backpedaling began when the mostly mask-free rallygoers began to boo: "No, that's OK. That's all right. You got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine. If it doesn't work, you'll be the first to know. OK? I'll call up Alabama, I'll say, hey, you know what? But [the vaccine] is working. But you do have your freedoms you have to keep. You have to maintain that."

Trump’s language was full of hedging. His use of “happened to take the vaccine” allowed him to imply agnosticism about whether it was a deliberate or wise decision at the time. (He himself secretly got the vaccination before leaving the White House, presumably because he had faith it would work.) He’s now telling his own supporters he thinks it’s working, but he can’t bring himself to do it without vague caveats about freedoms.

It’s of course widely known that Trump craves adulation over everything, and it’s not a surprise that he would decline to push back hard against boos in his own audience. But Trump bears some serious responsibility for the very boos that make him nervous.

Trump’s response to the pandemic entailed downplaying the dangers of the virus from the very beginning and failing to back public health guidance that could’ve helped slow its spread. On an individual level, he suggested it was similar to the flu, walked around maskless and floated questionable and junk treatments for Covid-19, perhaps most memorably the theory that injecting yourself with disinfectant might protect against falling ill. On a policy level, Trump dismantled critical organizational readiness for the pandemic, discouraged social distancing and lockdowns and tried to whip up xenophobic fear of China instead of focusing on what needed to be done domestically to protect Americans.

READ MORE: Trump's Alabama rally Covid vaccine damage control is too little too late https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/trump-s-covi... Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Monday, August 23rd 2021 at 9:47PM
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