Having canceled his Jan. 6 anniversary press conference, reportedly due in part to pressure from allies who warned it was a very bad idea, Trump released a statement Wednesday, January 6, 2022, encouraging his “MAGA Nation” followers to “rise up” in opposition to vaccine mandates.
“Our administration did what they said could not be done—vaccines in record time. But we never issued mandates, and I never would! People should be able to choose how they want to govern their own health. The federal government must be reined in.”
Later that night, The Blaze ran a lengthy interview between Trump and Glenn Beck. Covid was on the agenda, as it is one of the many issues Beck claims the violent coup to overturn the results of the 2020 election is “distracting” Americans from focusing on. The special was dubbed “The January 6th Distraction,” naturally, and the attack on the Capitol was not discussed.
Beck brought it up in the intro, though, ranting about how the left is using Jan. 6 as an “opportunity to demonize you,” his viewers. “It was stupid,” Beck said of the protesters storming the Capitol building before calling the Jan. 6 committee “a complete sham” and a “witch hunt.”
Beck also announced he has Covid.
Beck and Trump, seated at Mar-a-Lago, began on the topic of energy, which they described as one of the biggest problems facing America. Trump decried the Biden administration’s reversal of his attempt to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which he blamed for high gas prices, claiming that gas in California is as expensive as $7.77 per gallon.
According to AAA, gas prices in California are averaging $4.66 for a gallon of regular, a little more than a dollar-per-gallon difference from the national average as of Jan. 5. One gas station, in the remote coastal community of Gorda, has charged as much as $7.59 per gallon in recent months, according to 10 News San Diego, likely because the next closest station to the north is 40 miles away, or 12 miles away to the south.
Trump also bashed wind power, which he claimed “kills all your birds and ruins your, I mean, these magnificent landscapes are being just decimated by wind” (Trump could be referring to his own golf course here) before bragging about ending the Paris Climate Accord.
The former president continued to tout the vaccines, which he bragged “came in 9 months” instead of “5-12 years.” He then blamed Biden for decreasing vaccine uptake — even though members of the Republican Party have been fervently and falsely telling Americans immunity acquired from infection is superior. Biden, Trump claimed, “scared people” away from getting vaccinated. “The mandates have been a disaster. I would like them to take the vaccine,” Trump said, “But they have to do it if they want.”
Beck then revealed he already had Covid “quite badly” — meaning he is now on at least his second bout with the virus, and Trump said immunity acquired via infection was “supposedly as good” as getting the vaccine, despite the CDC’s findings that repeatedly have debunked that claim.
Trump then dabbled in the Covid lab theory, saying he “stopped” federal money from being used at the Wuhan Institute of virology and said that Dr. Anthony Fauci would not be working for him today if he were still president. “He’s not a great doctor, but he’s a great promoter. Everything he wanted, I didn’t do,” Trump said, bragging about his travel bans that did not stop the virus from reaching American shores. “All of a sudden [Fauci] wants you to wear 10 masks,” Trump said. “Wear as many as you can, wear them all over, cover your ears, do everything. So I didn’t do much of what he said, so he wasn’t a big factor. … He’s totally controlling Biden.”
The glaring issue not mentioned during the interview was Jan. 6, though, which means Americans may have had to wait for his Jan. 15 rally to get more of his unfiltered thoughts on the insurrection.
