Last night in the Republican Primary debate, NewsNation’s Megyn Kelly asked the presidential hopefuls whether Donald Trump was right to be proud of Operation Warp Speed, which brought the mRNA Covid vaccines to market in record time. Here’s a transcript of what was said.
Megyn Kelly: Through Operation Warp Speed, the Trump Administration and private industry developed a Covid vaccine in record time. The programme protected vaccine companies from virtually all lawsuits over vaccine injuries. The Government has a programme to compensate victims from such harm but critics say it is a black hole of bureaucracy: 12,000 claims filed, 10% decided, and only eight payouts so far, in a forum with no right to a counsel, no hearings, no appeals.
Mr. Trump says he is very proud of Warp Speed. Should he be?
Vivek Ramaswamy: This question on liability goes back actually to Reagan. Reagan is a President who I admire. Many of us do. I think that reviving that spirit is going to be in many ways good for this country, in so many ways. But one of the areas where he erred was this special form of lobbying to say that one kind of manufacturer, a vaccine manufacturer, cannot be sued for its product liability. So I have pledged, and it is part of my legislative agenda, we will repeal
that, just like we will repeal every other form of crony capitalism.
People who have been harmed by those vaccines deserve accountability. They cannot be forgotten Americans. And I think one of the top lessons we learned from that Covid pandemic is that free speech in this country is most important in those alleged times of emergency. If we had been allowed to openly debate the merits of those vaccines they would have never been mandated in the way that they were.
In general, I don’t think we want capitalism and democracy to share the same bed anymore. It’s time for a clean divorce. Let companies be companies but I don’t like the crony capitalism. This dates back a long time in both parties.
And I think that we need to end the lobbying, and I personally believe that if you have been working in the Government, you should not lobby that Government for 10 years. If you have been a Government elected official, doing deals with companies, be they Boeing or be they pharmaceutical companies, you should not join the board of that company for 10 years after.
The former chairman of the FDA, the Commissioner of the FDA, ended up on the board of Pfizer. Nikki Haley did deals for Boeing and ends up on the board of Boeing. I don’t care if it is a Republican or Democrat, we need some basic principles that end the corruption in Government. That’s how we got the health insurance exemptions. That’s how we got the pharmaceutical liability exemptions. We need to end the corruption.
Ron DeSantis: We need a reckoning for what this Government did during COVID-19. That includes the mRNA shots. They put it out, it was experimental, and people wanted it, then the Government started trying to mandate it. To say you don’t have a right to put food on your table if you don’t take an mRNA shot that was under emergency use? They tried to take nurses away.
Now, in Florida, we blocked that. We provided protections for everybody so that they wouldn’t lose their job.
You also have the FDA approving an mRNA shot for six month old babies. There was no data to support that. They are doing it because Big Pharma will make money.
So I’m going to go in there – CDC, NIH, FDA – we are going to clean house. There is going to be a reckoning. Right now, nobody has been held accountable for any of the damage. They are going to try to do it again. When I’m President, this will never happen to our country ever again.
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It would be great if someone with these views became the next U.S president. I fear, however, that with Dominion voting machines, mail-in ballots and dodgy registers of voters, the crooked Democrats will win again and nothing will change. I hope I am wrong.
Trump was wrong on vaccines and tends to make poor choices in his team members.
That said, the evidence demonstrates he was the best POTUS in America’s history. It’s economy boomed, record employment for blacks and Hispanics, cancelled the climate nonsense, no foreign wars, no military casualties, the Abraham accords, recognised the Golan as Israel’s, US embassy moved to Jerusalem, quietened the Palestinians, stopped Iran’s nuclear prog funding, good relations with Putin and stood up to China.
All this achieved in 4 years whilst being undermined by a hateful MSM, false claims of ‘Russian collusion’ and an AG (Barr) who was stabbing him in the back.
He won in 2020 but the election was stolen. Five key states,,where he was winning, had their counts suspended overnight, only to suddenly reverse the direction.
None of this reported by UK MSM.
I think it’s 50/50 he wins in 24, depends whether the corrupt US Election system exceeds the massive majority who hate Biden.
Not sure about best in history but better objectively than the chattering classes predicted
He appointed Supreme Court justices who believe in interpreting the constitution as it was understood by the people who voted to adopt it, and they have started to dismantle decades of left wing judicial activism that was profoundly anti democratic
Didn’t one of those female justices let him down over the rigged election? That is why it has not been properly addressed.
I don’t know much about the election related cases. A key one was Texas v Pennsylvania which the court refused to hear. Only Alito and Thomas dissented from that decision.
They correctly returned decisions about abortion to the states, and ruled that race-based university admissions were illegal, and hopefully they will overrule other prior decisions based on the nonsense of “substantive due process”
His one black mark for me was that he did nothing about the debt. It continued to balloon under his watch. Other than that and his questionable appointments (Supreme court picks excepted) he did amazing given what he faced.
Maybe Trump realises that taking on the Democrat Party and their cronies is one thing and taking on the military bio security establishment is a whole different kettle of fish.
The first will try to jail you if you take them on. But the second will assassinate you.
Trump is a chump. He owns the vaccines. He owns the CARES act, he spent like a drunken sailor and collapsed on Israel. He’s a blowhard that accomplished nothing. People expecting anything new from him are deluded.
Ramaswamy is ok in comparison, but frankly they all basically suck. RFK caved to the zionists at the first opportunity.
Presidential politics is not much better than the UK duopoly. If you want to fight the globalist takeover, none of the above will be on your side
Those who ask for power should always be at the back of the queue.
But then anarchy is not for everybody.
“ He’s a blowhard that accomplished nothing.”
I think there’s an element of truth in this. However I’d quite like political leaders that stop trying to “accomplish” things and got on with ensuring that the basic functions of the state are being executed as efficiently as can be expected.
File under ‘what did the Romans ever do for us …’
True, do you think he did that?
Not nearly as much I would like, but then that’s not what politicians do. I think he was less bad than the alternatives, and I would have voted for him in 2016 and 2020. Not sure about now as he was rubbish on covid, but the Dems are a big part of leading the US and the whole planet on a terrible path so it’s a tricky choice. I think there are promising parts of the Republican Party – more so than for example our Conservative Party.
Trump blew his legacy with poor judgement over the single biggest decision in modern history. And he still believes he did the right thing. Enough said.
Vivek is not to be trusted, he made many pro Lockdown and pro mask remarks in 2021.