August 5, 2021 ☼ scalise ☼ gop ☼ lies
Source: The Washington Post - Link
Republicans, especially supporters of former president Donald Trump, increasingly make up a large share of people refusing coronavirus vaccines, according to various surveys. With Democrats claiming that Republicans are not trusting science, Scalise, the House minority whip, decided to go on the offense, releasing a video claiming that Democrats actually are purveyors of vaccine misinformation.
This is a classic example of “whataboutism.” The 57-second video consists of clips of three prominent Democrats — President Biden, Vice President Harris and New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo — but are carefully clipped to remove context or to twist their meaning. These comments were made in 2020, when Trump was president and he was pressing the Food and Drug Administration to approve a vaccine before the presidential election.
The quotes given as “evidence” have been stripped of context. That context being the pressure the Trump administration was putting on the FDA and CDC to declare vaccine victory prematurely.