Former President Donald Trump said he was “very appreciative” and “surprised” when President Biden gave his administration credit for Operation Warp Speed’s quick vaccination rollout to the nation.
Biden begrudgingly praised Trump during a speech from the White House on Tuesday, which updated the American people on his administration’s efforts to combat Covid-19’s new Omicron variant.
The president pushed adults to vaccinate their age-appropriate children and to get the booster shots as soon as they are eligible. He referenced Trump for the first time after noting that 62 percent of eligible seniors had received their third jab.
“I got my booster shot as soon as they were available. And just the other day, former President Trump announced he had gotten his booster shot,” Biden remarked. “It may be one of the few things he and I agree on.”
Trump, who was hospitalized in October 2020 with the virus, publicly disclosed that he received his third vaccination at an event with Bill O’Reilly, and was booed by the crowd.
Biden also gave Trump’s administration credit for creating Operation Warp Speed to develop vaccines in partnership with the private sector and get emergency use authorizations from the FDA to deploy them to the country.
“Thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, America is one of the first countries to get the vaccine,” Biden commented. “And thanks to my administration and the hard work of Americans, we led a rollout that made America among the world leaders in getting shots in arms.”
In a Tuesday night interview, Trump reacted to the praise. “I’m very appreciative of that — I was surprised to hear it,” Trump stated. “I think it was a terrific thing, and I think it makes a lot of people happy.”
Trump said he thinks Biden “did something very good” for the nation by acknowledging his administration’s efforts. “You know, it has to be a process of healing in this country, and that will help a lot.”
“This is a great thing that we all did, I may have been the vehicle, but we all did this together,” he continued. “When we came up with these incredible vaccines — three of them — and therapeutics, we did a tremendous job, and we should never disparage them, we should be really happy about it because we’ve all saved millions and millions of lives all over the world.”
