Fact Check: Kamala Harris Repeats Major Lie About Vaccination Plan
What helped President Joe Biden get elected in the first place was the carefully crafted media and political narrative that Trump was botching his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Still trying to milk what is arguably the Democrats’ only winning issue for all it’s worth, Vice President Kamala Harris repeated the lie that President Donald Trump’s administration left them “starting from scratch” on COVID-19 response — a myth already debunked by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and COVID-19 guru.
In a segment of “Axios on HBO” recorded after a Wednesday virtual call with members of the African American Mayors Association at the White House, Harris dropped the recycled falsehood the Biden administration tried last month.
“There was no national strategy or plan for vaccinations,” Harris told host Mike Allen in a clip posted to YouTube on Monday.
“We were leaving it to the states and local leaders to try and figure it out. And so, in many ways we are starting from scratch on something that’s been raging for almost an entire year,” she claimed.
Harris’ complaint rings hollow in light of the fact that Trump’s Operation Warp Speed was instrumental in prompting private pharmaceutical companies to develop, test, produce and distribute a brand-new vaccine in record time.
When the administration rolled out the multifaceted plan to make the unprecedented ambition a reality, there was already a high-level distribution strategy in place.
In fact, by the time Trump left office, the government was inoculating 900,000 Americans per day, with even the Democrat-friendly Fauci publicly admitting the outgoing administration was rolling full-steam ahead.
“We certainly are not starting from scratch, because there is activity going on in the distribution,” Fauci said at a Jan. 21 White House briefing.
Even Axios didn’t let Harris’ statement go unchallenged at first, with a tweet promoting the show referencing both Harris’ lie and Fauci’s previous on-the-record rebuttal.
The tweet has since been deleted, although it survived as a screen shot shared by conservative pundit Stephen L. Miller.
“Axios deleting this tweet seems suspicious given the revelations that a reporter for them who covers Kamala Harris is head over heels in love with a now former Biden Administration member,” Miller captioned the screen shot referencing the controversial relationship between Axios reporter Alexi McCammond and the former White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo.
“See the problem now guys?”
Axios deleting this tweet seems suspicious given the revelations that a reporter for them who covers Kamala Harris is head over heels in love with a now former Biden Administration member. See the problem now guys? @mikeallen pic.twitter.com/U8v28h2kug
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 15, 2021
Nevertheless, the Biden administration continues to falsely assert that Trump’s COVID-19 strategy was either a mess or simply nonexistent.
Whether it’s to bolster its own reputation by taking credit for its predecessor’s work or an excuse to walk back the campaign promise to “shut down the virus,” this administration continues to downplay or lie about everything Trump did for the American people.
Trump survived a yearslong investigation into Russian collusion and two impeachments while carrying the nation through an unprecedented pandemic and related shutdowns.
Still, the new administration finds it necessary to use Trump as the scapegoat for anything that goes wrong from now until the end of time.
Harris has no problem continuing with those lies because she is sure the media will never challenge her on such a falsehood, at least not for very long.
Judging from the way the establishment media has treated the administration, Harris is probably right.
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