White House press secretary Jen Psaki told Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy during Wednesday’s press briefing that former President Donald Trump told people to inject “versions of poison” to cure COVID-19.
Doocy asked the press secretary if President Joe Biden had contributed to vaccine hesitancy when he said during the previous administration that he trusted science but not Trump, and “the American people can’t either.”
Psaki said that Biden “still doesn’t trust Donald Trump, but he does trust scientists” and gives credit to scientists and experts who worked to develop the vaccine during Trump’s presidency. (RELATED: CDC Says ‘Pregnant People’ Should Get The COVID-19 Vaccine)
Jen Psaki says Trump wanted people to inject ‘versions of poison’ to cure COVID pic.twitter.com/MsJrPHHOWK
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 11, 2021
Doocy asked again if Biden telling people not to trust Trump when the former president was promising a vaccine created “any kind of vaccine hesitancy.”
“Not that we’ve seen in the data,” Psaki responded. “I would note that at the time, just for context, the former president was also suggesting people inject versions of poison into their veins to cure COVID. So I think that’s a relevant point.”
In April of 2020, Trump made comments about the effects of disinfectants in killing coronavirus.
“I see the disinfectant, where it knocks [coronavirus] out in one minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning,” Trump said. “So it would be interesting to check that.”
Trump later said he was being sarcastic and that “disinfectant on the hands could have a very good effect.”
The Fox News correspondent then added that Biden said to wait until the vaccine was fully authorized, which it has not been. The vaccine was allowed under emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“The FDA works on the timeline of science,” Psaki added. “At the same time, we’ve also seen tens of millions of people’s lives saved who have gotten the vaccine. That data is clear across the country.”