Monthly Archives: February 2022

She is fiercely loyal to Donald Trump. But when the former US president came to her home city and praised coronavirus vaccines, Flora Moore did something she never thought possible. She booed him.

He said take the vaccine but we all booed and said no, she recalled of Trumps event with broadcaster Bill OReilly in Orlando, Florida. He heard us loud and clear because the Amway Center was packed. We let him know no and a couple of us even hollered out, Its killing people!

There is no scientific basis to the claim that the vaccines are killing people. In fact, they have demonstrably saved thousands of lives. But Moore is indicative of the extreme anti-vaccine sentiment consuming the base of the Republican party a monster that Trump himself can no longer control.

America is exhausted by a pandemic still killing more than 2,400 people a day, the overwhelming majority of whom are unvaccinated, bringing the total death toll to 900,000.

In more conventional times, Trumps Operation Warp Speed, which developed vaccines in record time, would be a source of pride for his voters. Even his successor, Joe Biden, has praised the initiative, stating: Thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, America was one of the first countries to get the vaccine.

But Trumps eagerness to claim credit has been undone by conservatives backlash against Bidens efforts to legally require worker vaccinations, which they cast as a threat to individual freedom. The ex-presidents customary applause turned to jeers when he encouraged supporters to get vaccinated and told OReilly that he received a booster himself.

What was arguably Trumps most important legacy from an otherwise disastrous pandemic response, and a divisive four-year presidency, has turned into a political liability, threatening to turn his own fans against him. Laurie Garrett, an award-winning science writer, observed: Its probably the only time his base has ever booed him about anything. If he can no longer brag about Operation Warp Speed, what can he brag about regarding how he handled Covid?

The anti-vaccine fervor has been stoked by some Republican politicians as well as rightwing media. Last month, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a notorious sceptic, gave writer Alex Berenson a platform to baselessly proclaim, The mRNA Covid vaccines need to be withdrawn from the market now. No one should get them. No one should get boosted. No one should get double-boosted.

The web has also become a place for unscientific conspiracy theories to thrive. Moore, the Trump supporter in Florida, said she gets her information from her 30,000 followers on Facebook as well as Telegram, Twitter and YouTube.

She said: I dont trust the government. I dont trust the pharmaceutical companies. Im active in politics here and found out lots of people were having complications and dropping dead. Theres a lot of jobs I wontt even take because they want me to get a vaccine.

The commercial analyst, who is in her 40s, refuses to wear a face mask in restaurants or at work. Her radical views on the issue outweigh even her faith in Trump.

I trust him on certain things, but hes not my God, she said.

Trump appears to have heeded the shift and recalibrated. At a rally in Conroe, Texas, last Saturday, where anti-vaccine views were again rampant, he channeled the crowds anger towards Bidens mandate for federal government workers (a similar mandate for businesses was rejected by the supreme court).

It is time for the American people to declare independence from every last Covid mandate, Trump said to cheers. We have to tell this band of hypocrites, tyrants and racists that were done with having them control our lives, mess with our children and close our businesses. Were moving on from Covid.

He then added briskly: We did a great job. Operation Warp Speed has been praised by everybody but its now time to move on. Notably in the remarks he did not use the word vaccines at all. It was a pivot that appeared to acknowledge the political threat and it is enough to satisfy voters such as Moore.

She commented: I think hes gotten the message that he can say he took the vaccine and nothing happened to him and if you desire to take it, take it, but if you dont want to, leave it alone.

The number of anti-vaxxers in the Republican base is hard to estimate. The Guardian interviewed half a dozen Trump rally attendees last week and found that most had got the shots. They included Jered Pettis, from Phoenix, Arizona, who had changed his mind on the topic.

We were totally anti-vaccine, didnt really believe in it, didnt want to get it, he said. Then a friend got it pretty severe: he could hardly breathe and felt like his head was going to explode. He didnt go to the hospital but he was very, very sick to the point where he told me, Hey, Jered. Im very thankful for every breath of air that I get now. After I had seen and heard one of my best friends go through that, I changed my mind in a heartbeat.

Pettis received two Pfizer doses, then caught the virus just over a month ago. So thank God, because I would have been a lot sicker than I was. It was almost like a mild cold. I could just imagine if I was not vaccinated.

The 50-year-old exterior designer describes the recent booing as absolutely ridiculous and believes that Trump deserves credit, not criticism, for the vaccines. Even though you may be anti-vaccine, youll change your mind if you get sick or you get somebody around you that dies.

Even so, deep-seated suspicion of the vaccines could deprive Republicans of what might have been a powerful boast going into Novembers midterm elections. Garrett, author of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance, points out that counties that voted for Trump in 2020 have a far higher mortality rate than counties that voted for Biden.

The Republicans are in a bind, she said. They are experiencing a higher death rate in their ranks and it is directly linked to their positions on Covid. The one thing they could claim as a great benefit that was saving lives, vaccination, theyre now being compelled by their own base to renounce.

Vaccine scepticism has never been a solely rightwing stance. Some libertarians on the left have opposed profit-driven big pharma and championed holistic alternatives. But on Covid-19, at least, this group appears to be significantly smaller than the conservative holdouts.

Garrett said: All the polls are showing tremendous partisan differential in everything to do with vaccines and it has been increasing steadily for the last two years. Its very much driven by the rightwing myths and narratives around Covid.

There still are some of those ex-hippie types that dont want to get vaccinated, but if you look at the breakdown on political sentiment about vaccination, willingness to get a third booster or even a fourth if it becomes available, its so Democrat. Its incredible Garrett said. I never thought in my life I would see something like this. It is an absolute partisan divide and its widening.

About nine in 10 Democrats and six in 10 Republicans have been vaccinated, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, while 62% of Democrats and just 32% of Republicans have been both vaccinated and boosted. The trend suggests that Republican candidates for the midterm elections are likely to follow Trumps lead in attacking Bidens mandates rather than celebrating Trumps vaccines.

But if any Republican can outflank Trump on the issue ahead of the 2024 presidential election, it may be the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, who has refused to say whether he received a booster. The New York Times reported that Patrick Ruffini, a Republican pollster, found Trumps lead over DeSantis closing to just nine points among party members who like both men.

Monika McDermott, a political science professor at Fordham University in New York, said: They can get disgruntled with Trump, certainly, and DeSantis is the obvious choice for people who are anti-vax. But giving up on Trump is like giving up on their dreams at this point. Trump was their savior. Trump brought about the wholesale remasculization of that portion of the American psyche.

Indeed, despite the possible split with his Make America Great Again movement on vaccines, Trump remains by far the biggest beast in the Republican jungle and this week announced that he is entering 2022 with a staggering $122m in campaign funds.

Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman active on social media, said: I talk to the extremists all the time and I agree with Trumps people that theyre locked with him. Theyre not going to anybody else.

Walsh finds that 90% of the base are anti-vaccine, do not believe Biden won and either have no problem with the 6 January insurrection or regard it as a patriotic day.

You could not as a Republican candidate run for office if you told people to get vaccinated or if you said Joe Biden won fair and square, he added. If you said either one of those two things, you couldnt win a Republican primary.

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Trump is not my God: how the former presidents only vaccine victory turned sour - The Guardian

Over Memorial Day weekend in 2011, a caravan of journalists chased her up the East Coast during a six-day trip from Washington to New Hampshire, believing she might use the occasion to announce that she would run against Mr. Obama. The trip also included a dinnertime stop at Trump Tower, where she and its most famous resident stepped out in front of the paparazzi on their way to get pizza.

She wouldnt reveal her intentions until later that year, in October. And when she did, she broke the news on Mark Levins radio show not on Fox News. It was a slight that infuriated Mr. Ailes, who had been paying her $1 million a year with the expectation that it would pay off with the buzz and big ratings that kind of announcement could generate.

There were signs at the time that Mr. Trump was starting to fill the void in Foxs coverage and in conservative politics that would exist without Ms. Palin center stage. He had been getting a considerable amount of coverage from the network lately for his fixation on wild rumors about Mr. Obamas background.

One interview in March 2011 on Fox & Friends the show known inside the network to be such a close reflection of Mr. Ailess favorite story lines that staff called it Rogers daybook was typical of how Mr. Trump used his media platform to endear himself to the hard right. He spent an entire segment that morning talking about ways that the president could be lying about being born in the United States. Its turning out to be a very big deal because people now are calling me from all over saying, Please dont give up on this issue, Mr. Trump boasted.

Three days after that interview, the network announced a new segment on Fox & Friends: Mondays With Trump. A promo teased that it would be Bold, brash and never bashful. And it was on Fox & Friends where Mr. Trump appeared after his pizza outing with Ms. Palin in the spring, talking up his prospects as a contender for the White House over hers.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Ailes were, at first, seemingly well matched.

Though he had financial motivations for promoting sensational but misleading stories, Mr. Ailes also seemed to be a true believer in some of the darkest and most bizarre political conspiracy theories.

In 2013, Mr. Obama himself raised the issue with Michael Clemente, the Fox News executive vice president for news, asking him at the White House Correspondents Dinner whether Mr. Ailes was fully bought-in on the conspiracies over the presidents birthplace. Does Roger really believe this stuff? Mr. Obama asked. Mr. Clemente answered, He does.

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Inside the Fox News That Donald Trump Helped Build - The New York Times

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) In 2016, Donald Trump overtook the Republican National Committee through a shock and awe campaign that stunned party leaders. In 2020, the party was obligated to support him as the sitting Republican president.

Heading into 2024, however, the Republican Party has a choice.

The RNC, which controls the partys rules and infrastructure, is under no obligation to support Trump again. In fact, the GOPs bylaws specifically require neutrality should more than one candidate seek the partys presidential nomination.

But as Republican officials from across the country gathered in Utah this week for the RNCs winter meeting, party leaders devoted considerable energy to disciplining Trumps rivals and embracing his grievances. As the earliest stages of the next presidential contest take shape, their actions made clear that choosing to serve Trump and his political interests remains a focus for the party.

If President Trump decides hes running, absolutely the RNC needs to back him, 100%, said Michelle Fiore, an RNC committeewoman who has represented Nevada since 2018. We can change the bylaws.

The loyalty to Trump is a fresh reminder that one of Americas major political parties is deepening its alignment with a figure who is undermining the nations democratic principles. As he fought to stay in the White House, Trump sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. More recently, he has explicitly said that former Vice President Mike Pence could and should have overturned the election results, something he had no power to do.

Away from the ballrooms of the RNC meeting, Pence rebuked Trump on Friday, saying he had no right to overturn the election and that his former boss was wrong to suggest otherwise.

Pence is one of a few Republicans making moves toward a 2024 campaign regardless of whether Trump wages a comeback bid. If he were to run for the White House again, Trump is such a powerful force with the GOP base that he probably wouldnt need the partys help to become the nominee.

Some Republicans said thats beside the point.

Theres probably some disagreement there, said Bruce Hough, a longtime RNC member from Utah who lost to a Trump ally in a race for party co-chair last year. The RNC has to provide a level playing field for any and all comers for president. Thats our job. Thats what we have to do.

But a stark divide has emerged between veterans like Hough, who are devoted to the GOP as an institution, and a larger group of Trump-aligned newcomers, who argue theyre bringing new energy to the party. Their chief loyalty, however, seems to be to the former president.

Leading up to 2020, or most of the time Trump was in office, he sent around his minions to populate the committee with very loyal Trump folks in a lot of red states, said Bill Palatucci, an RNC committeeman from New Jersey and frequent Trump critic. And they still enjoy that strong majority.

The RNCs continued embrace of Trump more than two years before the 2024 election is a decided shift from the partys position in past elections.

In 2012 and 2016, for example, Reince Priebus as RNC chair went to great lengths to ensure each of the candidates was treated equally. The party sanctioned 12 debates, including early rounds that featured up to 17 candidates.

Clearly, theres a bias that didnt exist in the past, said Tim Miller, who previously worked for the Republican National Committee and has since emerged as a fierce Trump critic. Its all Trump all the time coming out of there.

A year ago, just after President Joe Bidens inauguration, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel declined to encourage Trump to run again when asked, citing party rules that require neutrality. She also discouraged attacks on those Republicans who voted for Trumps impeachment.

This week, however, she backed an effort by Trump loyalists to censure Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a move triggered almost entirely by their fight against Trumps enduring influence in the party beyond the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The censure, which passed on a voice vote Friday, says the two support Democrat efforts to destroy President Trump more than they support winning back a Republican majority in 2022.

McDaniels shift coincides with the RNCs reliance on Trump for fundraising. The party has issued hundreds of fundraising appeals since Trump left office evoking his name. One offered this message to prospective small-dollar donors on Tuesday: YOU must stand with President Trump and YOUR Party.

In speeches made minutes before party leaders voted to censure Cheney and Kinzinger, McDaniel and co-chair Tommy Hicks did not mention Trump and stressed the need to unify for the 2022 midterm elections.

Though the committees moves demonstrated a sustained loyalty to the former president, outside the winter meeting the censure was condemned by opponents as divisive and contrary to frequent appeals from leaders to expand the partys tent.

The RNCs discipline shows more about them than us, Kinzinger said in an interview. It shows that Trump and Trumpism has overtaken the RNC.

Cheney in a statement said the move demonstrated how the party had become hostage to Trump.

Indeed, this weeks focus on debates that wont take place until 2024 and on anti-Trump Republicans overshadowed the partys preparations for the midterm elections. Thats notable because the GOP could reclaim control of at least one chamber of Congress and several governors mansions.

But this week, Trumps grievances with his Republican critics took center stage instead.

We should be focused on what the voters are focused on, said Caleb Heimlich, chair of the Republican Party in Washington state, where two of three House members voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 insurrection. Ive been talking to voters in Washington state, traveling around and nobody talks about Cheney. Thats a D.C. topic.

Others disagreed.

Harmeet Dhillon, an RNC committeewoman from California, said it was imperative to send a clear message about Cheney and Kinzinger for her and the legions of volunteers working to elect Republicans this year.

The midterms are about a party electing its leaders, and what Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney did here is defy their partys leadership, Dhillon said. I do not want to elect people in the midterms who do what these two did.

Beyond the censure, Republicans set in motion a rules change rooted in another of Trumps longstanding grievances. A measure advanced that would force presidential candidates to sign a pledge saying they will not participate in any debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates advanced. It is expected to be voted on when RNC members convene again in August.

We are not walking away from debates, McDaniel said. We are walking away from the Commission on Presidential Debates because its a biased monopoly that does not serve the best interests of the American people.

The eventual 2024 nominee, however, will have final say on whether to participate.

Another Republican eyeing a White House campaign, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, decried the RNCs push to punish Trumps rivals.

The GOP I believe in is the party of freedom and truth, the frequent Trump critic tweeted Friday. Its a sad day for my party and the country when youre punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies.

___

Peoples reported from New York.

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Trump's GOP: Party further tightens tie to former president - Associated Press

Georgia Gov. Brian KempBrian KempKemp invokes Trump in ad after former president slams him in ad for Perdue Stacey Abrams raises over M since launching bid for Georgia governor Ohio secretary of state finds 27 potentially illegal votes MORE (R) is responding to an ad from his chief primary rival that heavily features Donald Trump with a spot of his own invoking the former president.

The 30-second spot comes just a few days after former Sen. David PerdueDavid PerdueKemp invokes Trump in ad after former president slams him in ad for Perdue Stacey Abrams raises over M since launching bid for Georgia governor Ohio secretary of state finds 27 potentially illegal votes MORE (R-Ga.), whom Trump has endorsed to replace Kemp, unveiled the first ad of his gubernatorial campaign. That ad features Trump himself hammering Kemp and touting his support for Perdue.

But Kemps spot, which was paid for by the governors leadership committee, looks to turn the tables on Perdue, accusing him of outsourcing jobs to China throughout his lengthy business career despite Trumps campaign promise to bring back jobs that were sent overseas.

President TrumpDonald TrumpCanadian premier calls truckers protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandate an 'occupation' Hogan calls RNC censure of Cheney, Kinzinger a 'sad day' for GOP Jan. 6 defendant asks to subpoena Trump as trial witness MORE worked hard putting America first, a narrator says in the ad before flashing a clip of the former president vowing to bring jobs back from China.

But David Perdue sent American jobs to China over and over again, by the thousands, and made millions, the narrator continues. The ad then features a clip of Perdue saying that he was proud to outsource jobs.

The dueling ads underscore the bitter nature of the primary fight between Perdue and Kemp, a onetime Trump ally who drew the former presidents ire after he refused to help overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Despite Trumps efforts to oust Kemp, the incumbent governor has pushed on with his campaign, and recent polling shows him with a clear lead over Perdue. A Quinnipiac University survey released last week found Kemp notching 43 percent support among likely Republican voters in Georgia, while Perdue finished second with 36 percent.

Still, theres plenty of time between now and the May 24 primary. The eventual nominee will likely go on to face Democrat Stacey Abrams in the November general election. Abrams, who previously faced Kemp in the 2018 race for governor, isnt facing any primary opposition, giving her a glide path to the Democratic nomination.

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Kemp invokes Trump in ad after former president slams him in ad for Perdue | TheHill - The Hill