WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — In an interview on Fox News, former President Donald Trump encouraged his followers to get the coronavirus vaccine.
He was asked by host Maria Bartiromo if he would recommend the vaccine and noted he, along with the first lady, received the vaccine a few months ago.
“I would,” Trump responded. “I would recommend it and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly.”
“But again, we have our freedoms and we have to live by them and I agree with that also. But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it is something that works,” Trump added.
The former president previously recommended the vaccine at an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC).
Trump said, “So everybody go get your sho,t” while discussing his administration’s role in the creation and initial distribution of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
Dr. Fauci had recently spoken out asking the former president to issue a more forceful recommendation for the coronavirus vaccine. He said it would be a “game changer” in light of Trump’s influence among Republicans.
“If he came out and said, ‘Go and get vaccinated. It’s really important for your health, the health of your family and the health of the country,’ it seems absolutely inevitable that the vast majority of people who are his close followers would listen to him,” Fauci told “Fox News Sunday.”
Trump hasn’t been among former presidents and other public officials who have been vaccinated on camera to encourage others to get the shot. He was vaccinated in private, along with former first lady Melania Trump, in January.
Trump did not appear in a new public service campaign for the COVID-19 vaccine that included former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.