On MSNBC’s “Deadline White House” Thursday, Nicole Wallace mentioned the confusing messaging coming out of the Trump administration on the COVID-19 vaccines. Would the “herd immunity” camp prevent the White House from leaning into encouraging people to get the vaccine? Melanie Trump said if she got the vaccine, she would never tell. Mike Pence would get his shot on camera. Donald Trump spreads disinformation and is MIA on the vaccine.
The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker remarked on the press release saying Pence would be getting his shot this morning to boost confidence in the vaccine. Yet, Parker said (drawing chuckles from fellow panelists), “like everything with this virus, it stands to be undermined by the fact that it’s the vice president and not the president getting that vaccine. It sort of has elements of the vice president being a bit of a ‘food taster’ for the president.”
Throughout the crisis, she added, experts would stand at the White House podium providing scientifically correct information such as “wear a mask,” and then “the president comes and undermines it by not wearing a mask himself or turning to reporters and demanding that they take off their masks.” These communication failures, Parker concluded, have led to the “dark winter” facing the U.S.
Trump could do the country a service and save tens of thousands of American lives by getting the vaccine on camera. But what’s in it for him now that voters have rejected him?
Anyway, here’s his food taster taking one for his king: