Trump takes credit for ‘miracle’ vaccines as America celebrates New Year

Donald Trump ended 2020 by taking credit for the “miracle” vaccines actually developed by private companies, not the federal government, to fight the coronavirus, stating in a video address posted on social media: “Everyone calls to thank me.”

“Thanks to Operation Warp Speed ​​we developed a vaccine in just nine months. We have already started a nationwide vaccination program and we are shipping the vaccine around the world, ”he said in the video.

“The world will benefit, we will benefit, and everyone is calling to thank me. They said it would take a medical miracle, and that’s exactly what it is. “

Companies like Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna could have a say in this regard.

The outgoing president decided to make his remarks less than 24 hours after the country suffered the deadliest day of the pandemic so far, and the United States recorded 3,763 deaths on Wednesday.

More than 345,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 overall.

Here is the report from John T Bennett.

By contrast, President-elect Joe Biden marked the turn of the year by praising front-line medical personnel for their heroism during the pandemic, reminding the American public on ABC New Years Eve Rockin ‘Eve Broadcast from Times Square in New York City: “We owe you, we owe you, we owe you.”

“My mother used to have an expression. Courage resides in every heart and one day it will be summoned. [In] the people we are honoring tonight were summoned and they stepped forward and they are brave, they did a lot, ”he said.

“They risked their lives, they have done so much for us and we owe them, we owe them, we owe them.”

As rogue Republicans continue to back the president’s call to overturn the election results ahead of their Senate certification on Jan.6, Vice President Mike Pence has broken ranks to ask a federal judge to drop the Texas congressman’s latest legal challenge. Louie Gohmert, who would have granted him additional powers like veep to nullify the result.

Gohmert’s lawsuit, filed earlier this week and supported by a clique of fellow Republican representatives, seeks to expand Pence’s role during next week’s session in the upper house of Congress, which he will preside over and see lawmakers formally calculate. the results of the Electoral College of the states. to certify Joe Biden as a winner.

But in a report Thursday sent to Trump-appointed Texas-based U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle, Pence said he was not a suitable defendant in the lawsuit.

“A lawsuit to establish that the vice president has discretion over the charge, brought against the vice president, is a walking legal contradiction,” wrote a Justice Department attorney representing Pence.

His boss will not like it at all, as the vice president knows well, hence he flees abroad as soon as he finishes his duties.

Missouri Republican Senator and Trump loyalist Josh Hawley has drawn plenty of ridicule since announcing his intention to protest Congress by certifying Electoral College results on Wednesday, and his Republican colleague Ben Sasse of Nebraska was the last to call him, issuing a detailed rebuke to his “dangerous ploy” on Facebook.

Here are a couple of excerpts of choice:

But let’s not get carried away with praising Sasse for belatedly doing the right thing.

Another member of the Republican Party who takes to social media to denounce the mendacity of the president’s acolytes is Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who warns in a new video: “Members of Congress are planning to try to overthrow this election using discredited conspiracy theories. . Let’s be clear: they won’t be successful and everyone knows it. “

In a closer look at the last months of this president in office, The New York Times has released a detailed new report on how it wanted to address the worsening coronavirus pandemic.

Apparently when he heard his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner scream on August 19, Trump demanded “to do what Mexico does” when it comes to testing for Covid-19.

“They don’t give you a test until you get to the ER and you’re throwing up,” he said during a meeting of senior attendees in the Oval Office.

Yeesh. You can almost smell compassion.

Here’s Josh Marcus with a little more of that damning account of this administration’s handling of elections and the pandemic in The New York Times.

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham broke with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s opposition to an increase in direct payments for coronavirus relief from $ 600 to $ 2,000 and called for an independent vote on the issue, which will please both Trump and Democrats.

Graig Graziosi has this report.

Things are not going well for the two Republican candidates in Peach State, with their Democratic rivals leading the way in the polls and Kelly Loeffler accused of “campaigning with a member of the Klan” on Sunday.

And now, like Trump in October, David Perdue has to step back from the election campaign after coming into contact with a Covid-19 victim.

Worker Josh Marcus also has more information on this topic.