The COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s reputation, and the contentious Operation Warp Speed were all issues covered in Megyn Kelly’s bombshell interview with the former president. The discussion was tight and combative as Kelly unafraidingly pressed Trump on the most divisive topics of his presidency.
Megyn Kelly quickly attacked Trump’s association with Dr. Anthony Fauci, a hugely divisive figure in conservative circles.
“For years, you’ve been saying that the reason you didn’t fire Anthony Fauci was because he’d been there for a long time, that you would have taken heat, that it would have created a firestorm,” Kelly said.
“You made him a star. This is the criticism of you, that you made him the face of the White House coronavirus,” Kelly said that Fauci attended each press conference and had even been given a “presidential commendation.”
In response, Trump minimized Fauci’s contribution to his administration and informed Kelly that he had not given Fauci a praise from the president. Trump said that it was presumably given to him by someone in his administration. Trump continued by saying he “overrode many of the things” Fauci suggested in favor of letting states make their own choices.
“I don’t know who gave him the commendation. I really don’t know who gave him… Somebody probably handed him commendation,” Trump said.
“Let me just tell you about Fauci. Fauci was very important in the Biden administration. If you know, he didn’t want to stop China. He wanted to let everyone come in from China. I stopped it. I overrode it. I overrode many of the things he did. He was much less important to me,” Trum added.
He continued, “Now, with that all being said, he’s been there for years. He was respected. He lost a lot of respect because of COVID but he was respected. And on COVID, if you know what I did, I let the governors run their states, and many of the governors opened up their states, some of them didn’t… A lot of the states were not closed. I allowed the governors to do that. I also allowed Democrat governors to do that, but I don’t think any of them none of them did it.”
Kelly then changed the subject to Fauci’s support for mask regulations. “Wouldn’t you like to go back and try to clip his wings? This guy was pushing mask mandates on us. He wanted the most extreme measure at every turn,” she pressed.
Defending his strategy, Trump said he’s “not one that blames a system” and that he’s “done things that are a lot worse” than not firing someone. In addition, he discussed his history of dismissing employees, including James Comey, the former director of the FBI, whom he referred to as a member of the “deep state.”
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“I’m not one that blames a system that if you’re civil service or if you have some other protection, that you can’t get fired because I’ve done things that are a lot worse than that,” said Trump.
“I was not a big fan of Fauci. If you look at Ron DeSanctimonious, this guy said the greatest things. I can give you articles. That Fauci’s great. He’s wonderful. We love him. We don’t do anything without Fauci. This went on for months,” Trump said.
Kelly denied the assertion that Governor Ron DeSantis “didn’t listen to Fauci.”
“He did 100%. He shut down Florida for a lot of long,” Trump emphasized that he gave governors the freedom to make their own judgments.
“I’m not trying to blame anybody, but he should say, I closed it down… But I gave him the right to keep it open if he wanted to. I let the governors make the determination as to whether or not to close it down,” said Trump.
Trump emphasized that he gave governors the freedom to make their own judgments.Witness the heated debate over Operation Warp Speed, Trump’s trailblazing initiative to expedite the development of COVID-19 vaccinations. Investigate Kelly’s pointed query, which asks if Trump has any remorse for the hurried development of vaccines, given the conflicting results it has had on individuals.
“These are your fans. This is the number one question they wanted me to ask you, that you shut the country down for six weeks in spring of 2020…” Kelly said.
Trump quickly clarified, “I didn’t really… I let the governors shut down. Some did and some didn’t.”
Kelly expressed concern about the rapid development of vaccines under Operation Warp Speed.
“The vaccines they were rushed through. They have helped but also hurt a lot of people. And your White House actually supported mask mandates. So wouldn’t you like a do-over on any of that?” asked Kelly.
In order to justify the actions of his government, Trump said that when the virus initially appeared, “nobody knew what the hell it was.” He highlighted that he was the one to pinpoint the Wuhan Clinic as the origin and that by preventing travel from China, he had saved lives. Trump said, “Nobody really understands it even now, fully,”
“Look, when this came in, nobody knew what the hell it was. It sounded like an ancient pandemic. You thought that was from 200 years ago or from 1917. We never thought you’d have a pandemic. Nobody had any idea. We got word that bad things were happening in China right around the Wuhan Clinic, and I was the one who said it was in the Wuhan Clinic, and I stuck with it. And it was. It was absolutely it came out of the Wuhan Clinic.”
“This was brand new. Nobody knew what the hell it was. Somebody said there’s dust coming in from China, and it’s killing people in Italy, and it’s killing people in France, and it’s going to kill people here. And by the way, I shut it down to China. That was a big move. I saved thousands, hundreds of thousands of lives by doing it. But honestly, I don’t blame a lot of people because nobody knew what it was. Now, we do understand it somewhat. Nobody really understands it even now, fully, but nobody knew what COVID was, and it wasn’t even a name. I called it the China virus. I still do. I call it the China virus. It came out of China.”
Trump defended the administration’s actions, saying that by moving promptly, “hundreds of thousands of lives” were spared. He also said that the vaccination rollout has received acclaim from Democrats, who called it “one of the greatest things you’ve ever done.”
“As far as the vaccine is concerned, you had the original COVID, and the vaccine had an impact on that. And there are some people, I will tell you, some friends of mine that are Democrat—I think they voted for me, but they’re Democrat, very smart people, top people. They say, ‘You know, I don’t understand one thing. Why don’t you talk more about the vaccine? It was one of the greatest things you’ve ever done.’ Now, think of that. They say to me, and I say, ‘I’m not going to talk about it one way or the other,’” said Trump.
“First of all, no mandates. I don’t want mandates. I never had mandates… No mandates, no anything. I didn’t demand anybody to take it. But I have people on the other side, not my side, they said ‘You saved 100 million people’ because I got it done in nine months as opposed to five years to twelve years. A lot of people are proud of it. No, I’m not proud of it. I’m saying what Democrats think.” Trump added.
“I’m not somebody who denies some of the good the vaccines did. I lived through that, too,” Kelly responded. “But of course, a lot of people have been vaccine-injured, and that’s one of the questions. Those people are mad that they were rushed through and that they can’t sue.”
Kelly discusses a recently identified autoimmune condition that developed after immunization.
Trump emphasizes personal freedom and exhorts people to make their own decisions free from mandates.
“I never gave mandates, and people have to make up their own make their own decision, as far as I’m concerned,” Trump said.
(Trump’s whole interview will be broadcast in its entirety today at noon EST on SiriusXM Ch. 111. Later today, it will be uploaded on Megan Kelly’s YouTube channel.)
In a stirring video address, the former president Trump fiercely opposes the reinstatement of COVID-19 limitations, blasting lockdowns, mask requirements, and vaccination mandates.
Trump’s most recent statements attempt to sway the next 2024 election by playing on concerns about COVID-19 variations.
In the video that was published on Truth Social, Trump said that the “left-wing lunatics” are once more using fear mongering to create a pretext for further restrictions. He asserted that the true goal of this is to sway the future 2024 election by “restart the COVID hysteria.”
Here is the translation:
The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fear-mongering about the new variants that are coming.
Gee whiz, you know what else is coming? An election. They want to restart the COVID hysteria so they can justify more lockdowns, more censorship, more illegal dropboxes, more mail-in ballots, and trillions of dollars in payoffs to their political allies heading into the 2024 election. Does that sound familiar?
These are bad people. These are sick people we’re dealing with. But to every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words, WE WILL NOT COMPLY, so don’t even think about it.
The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all of their sudden fear-mongering about the new variants that are coming.
Gee whiz, you know what else is coming? An election. They want to restart the COVID hysteria so they can justify more lockdowns, more censorship, more illegal dropboxes, more mail-in ballots, and trillions of dollars in payoffs to their political allies heading into the 2024 election. Does that sound familiar?
These are bad people. These are sick people we’re dealing with. But to every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words, WE WILL NOT COMPLY, so don’t even think about it.
