Former Biden COVID Advisor Zeke Emanuel Opposes Helping Workers Fired Over Vaccine Mandate

President Joe Biden’s former COVID-19 advisor Ezekiel Emanuel said Monday he opposed giving unemployment benefits to workers who were fired for refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine.

While speaking on CNN Tonight, Emanuel criticized several Republican-led states that have extended their unemployment aid to workers who were fired over the vaccine mandate.

“I don’t like this incentive at all. I think it basically says people who are rejecting the vaccine mainly because they are against vaccinations are doing social harm and now governors are rewarding them. That is a very bad incentive and just the opposite of what the country needs,” Emanuel said. (RELATED: US Air Force Denies Over 2,100 Religious Exemption Requests From Vaccine Requirement)

Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee have created exceptions for individuals fired for refusing the vaccine mandate when it comes to unemployment benefits.

WATCH:

“What’s the real purpose? Do you think it’s to undermine the President’s vax mandate in the name of individual liberty?” host Michael Smerconish questioned.

“I don’t think it’s in the name of individual liberty, it’s in the name of politics. No person who was present at the founding of this country, Franklin, Washington, Madison, Hamilton, would endorse this idea of liberty,” Emanuel claimed.

“Liberty always involves the idea that you can do what you want as long as you don’t impinge on someone else and that is not what is happening here. People who stay unvaccinated are impinging on other people,” he continued. “They are propagating the virus, they’re going to hospitals that are overloaded if they happen to get very sick. This is hardly individual liberty that does not affect the well-being of other people. No founding father would recognize this as a legitimate argument for individual liberty.”