Vice president-elect Kamala Harris received the coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday after saying she wouldn’t take it if it were developed under President Donald Trump before or after the election.
Harris happily posed for photographs while receiving the Moderna vaccine injection at the United Medical Center in southeast Washington, D.C.
Harris had said in September that she wouldn’t receive a coronavirus vaccine developed under the Trump administration because she had doubts on whether he would streamline the process in order to improve his voter support.
“Well, I think that’s gonna be an issue for all of us,” Harris said to Dana Bash on CNN.
“I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump, and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about,” she explained. “I will not take his word for it.”
She went on to say that the president was “grasping for whatever he can get to pretend that he’s been a leader on this issue when he’s not.”
Later in October, Vice President Mike Pence criticized Harris during the vice presidential debate for undermining public trust in the development of the vaccine.
“If the public health professionals, if Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, if the doctors tell us that we should take it, I’ll be the first in line to take it,” Harris said during the debate. “But if Donald Trump tells us we should take it, I’m not taking it.”
Pence called her statement “unconscionable” and accused her of playing politics with people’s lives.
On Tuesday, Harris appeared to reiterate her anti-Trump pro-science comments when she received the vaccine.
“I trust the scientists and it’s the scientists who created and approve the vaccine,” Harris said. “I urge everyone when it’s your turn to get vaccinated.”
Republican chairwoman Ronna McDaniel slammed Harris for hypocritically changing her position on the vaccine.
“Over the summer, Kamala Harris shamefully decided to play politics and undermined confidence in a vaccine,” she tweeted.
Over the summer, Kamala Harris shamefully decided to play politics and undermined confidence in a vaccine.
Today,… https://t.co/88Ike2t0AO
— Ronna McDaniel (@Ronna McDaniel)1609263902.0
“Today, she was able to get one because of [President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed],” she added.
Here’s more about Harris and the vaccine:
Kamala Harris: I WON’T take Coronavirus vaccine if Trump tells me to | VP Debate
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