March 30, 2021

Trump Responds To CNN

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With a statement.

But first, let's get some legal framing, shall we?

Huh? What could he possibly mean?

First utterance from the statement:
Based on their interviews, I felt it was time to speak up about Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately almost always overturned.

Trump ignored the scientific evidence he was given.

He then distorts recent history:

We developed American vaccines by an American President in record time, nine months, which is saving the entire world. We bought billions of dollars of these vaccines on a calculated bet that they would work, perhaps the most important bet in the history of the world.

Um, here's a clarification from Politico: 

In his statement on Monday, the ex-president called the vaccines authorized for emergency use “American vaccines,” even though the first vaccine to be authorized in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration was developed by the Turkish immigrants who founded BioNTech in Germany, and later collaborated with Pfizer to bring it to market. Pfizer, which manufactures the vaccine, did not receive development money from the government.

More clarity from the NYTimes:

In July, Pfizer got a $1.95 billion deal with the government’s Operation Warp Speed, the multiagency effort to rush a vaccine to market, to deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine. The arrangement is an advance-purchase agreement, meaning that the company won’t get paid until they deliver the vaccines. Pfizer did not accept federal funding to help develop or manufacture the vaccine, unlike front-runners Moderna and AstraZeneca.

And then there's this from Pfizer itself: 

Under the agreement, the U.S. government will receive 100 million doses of BNT162, the COVID-19 vaccine candidate jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, after Pfizer successfully manufactures and obtains approval or emergency use authorization from U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).[Emphasis added.]

They'd only get "Warp Speed" money after the FDA approved of the vaccine (full disclosure: I was vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine). Operation Warp Speed was never a part of the Pfizer development.

Trump distorts history when he's complaining about others distorting history. Surprising, right?

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