President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are visiting a handful of states this month to try to rewrite their record on the COVID-19 vaccine.
Instead of playing politics like she did last week, Harris should have visited the southern border and addressed the crisis that she and Biden created. Since being made border crisis manager over 90 days ago, Harris has refused to take responsibility for Biden’s failed immigration policies, and her handling of this humanitarian crisis has become an unmitigated disaster.
Refusing to visit the border is bad enough. It’s even worse considering the Biden-Harris administration’s domestic tour is based on dishonest partisan spin. Both Biden and Harris falsely continue to take credit for the COVID-19 vaccine. The truth is that former President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress were responsible for delivering the vaccine and saving hundreds of thousands of lives, while Democrats such as Biden and Harris cynically questioned the safety of the vaccine during the campaign.
Operation Warp Speed, Trump’s groundbreaking vaccine development program, got us the vaccine we desperately needed. By creating key public-private partnerships to develop the vaccine quickly, Trump took an innovative businessman’s approach to the problem, cutting through bureaucratic red tape to deliver real results ahead of schedule. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins described the initiative as getting results “at least five years faster than it’s ever been done before,” crediting the Trump administration with producing a safe, accessible vaccine with “breathtaking” speed.
While Republicans were working to save lives, Biden and Harris were actively sowing doubt on the campaign trail about the vaccine’s efficacy. Harris went so far as to say that she wouldn’t take a vaccine recommended by the Trump administration. Biden questioned whether a vaccine would be “real” and whether there would be a “consensus” that “this is a safe vaccine.” Then, a few months later, both of them got a shot developed under Operation Warp Speed. It’s almost as if Democratic attacks on the vaccine were driven by partisan calculation rather than a patriotic interest in protecting people from COVID-19. This is the kind of Beltway hypocrisy that people have come to expect from Biden and Harris.
The statistics tell a clear story: The vaccine’s development has been absolutely crucial in helping America turn the corner in the fight against COVID-19. Well over 300 million doses of vaccines approved under Operation Warp Speed have been administered in the United States, and millions more have been administered around the world. Over 145 million people are now fully vaccinated, and over 174 million have received at least one dose. By Inauguration Day 2021, over 14 million doses had already been administered in the U.S., thanks to leadership from Trump and the Republicans.
That kind of bold leadership was also on display when Republicans delivered the Paycheck Protection Program, which supported over 51 million U.S. jobs during the pandemic. Republicans delivered vaccines that saved lives and funding that saved small businesses and jobs. Democrats delivered little more than divisive hypocrisy. Their decision to use the vaccine as a political football as Republicans worked to get shots into arms is nothing short of shameful, and the public sees right through it.
As Biden and Harris take their misleading vaccine victory lap, Republicans will continue to provide the public with real solutions. Whether they’re avoiding the border or taking credit for a vaccine project that they previously undermined, Biden and Harris are failing people across the board.
Ronna McDaniel is the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.
