Former President Donald Trump is finding himself at odds with many in the GOP when it comes to the coronavirus vaccine.
While he has put out statements in recent days denouncing the media at large for not adequately praising him or his administration’s efforts to develop a vaccine quickly, many of his followers in Congress are sending different messages about it.
The former commander in chief said in a tweemail on Sunday that his administration did a “great job … with respect to the pandemic” and said his predecessor left the cupboards “‘bare.’” He claimed that “without the vaccine, the entire World would have ended up like it was in 1917, the Spanish Flu, where as many as 100 million people died.”
GO AWAY: BIDEN’S ‘DOOR-TO-DOOR’ HUNT FOR UNVACCINATED REJECTED
Trump, who has been vaccinated, also brought up the work that his administration did to develop the vaccine in tweemails sent on June 18 and June 28.
Despite Trump’s push for praise, there appears to be a disconnect between his stance on the vaccine and some of his most ardent acolytes.
During the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas last weekend, the crowd cheered when writer and speaker Alex Berenson said: “The government was hoping that they could sort of sucker 90% of the population into getting vaccinated, and it isn’t happening.”
A day later, House GOP freshman Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted that people should “Just say NO!” to the vaccine, citing people who reported “very serious life changing vaccine side effects.”
Late last month, Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, who has been known to promote contrarian viewpoints, hosted a press conference with people and families who said that the negative side effects of the vaccine outweighed its benefits.
In a statement, Johnson said the whole group was “pro-vaccine,” noting that in “the vast majority of people, the vaccine has been administered with little or no side effects,” although he alleged certain people are “certainly downplaying what is happening” when it comes to adverse side effects.
Following the White House’s failure to reach its Fourth of July vaccination goal of getting at least 70% of adults with one shot by the holiday, the administration came up with a proposal that included targeted door-to-door outreach, which also received blowback from those on the Right.
Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert rebuked the concept, calling those who would work on the campaign “needle Nazis,” while Greene likened them to Nazi-era “medical brown shirts.”
“President Trump, like me, thinks Americans are smart enough to make their own decisions,” Boebert added. “The beauty of this country is the ability to decide for yourself what is best. The role of government is not to force, have million dollars lotteries or door-to-door pricks, pun intended.”
Last week, Arizona Republican Andy Biggs criticized the government’s push, saying, “In 2021, the nine most terrifying words in the English language: ‘I’m from the government, have you been vaccinated yet?’”
There are other Republicans, those of whom are not as tied to the “Make America Great Again” movement, encouraging people to get vaccinated.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged people to the vaccine during a press conference on Tuesday, saying, “We need to keep preaching that getting the vaccine is important,” and he called the current lag to be perplexing, though he didn’t directly answer questions about members of his own party who are pushing against vaccinations.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
When asked about the apparent divergence, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee directed the Washington Examiner to two tweets from chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
“As Trump and Republicans were leading Operation Warp Speed, Biden was spreading doubt about the vaccine’s efficacy. Biden should thank Trump for developing a vaccine in record time,” one tweet read, while the other reads, “Is the DNC calling on companies to police and censor text messages?” The later was in response to an article about the Biden administration working with cell phone carriers to potentially flag misinformation in text messages.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
