Nation

Trump argues U.S. wouldn’t have COVID-19 vaccine if he weren’t president

Published

3 years ago

March 11, 2021

On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump argued that had he not been in the Oval Office, the United States would likely have not received a COVID-19 vaccine “for 5 years”.

“I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all,” Trump said in an emailed statement.

“I hope everyone remembers!” he continued.

According to the Biden administration though, when they entered office, the previous administration had left them with no roadmap to the distribute vaccines throughout the U.S. This claim, it should be noted, has been challenged by critics.

The former president’s statement came the same day that Andy Slavitt, a senior advisor to President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team, announced that one in four adults in the country have now received their first dose of a vaccine.

COVID Vaccination Update: 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. have now received their first vaccine.
— Andy Slavitt (@aslavitt46) March 10, 2021

When Biden took the reins in January, he said that he wanted to see 100 million vaccinations administered during his first 100 days in office.

50 days into his presidency, over 95.7 million vaccine doses have been administered in the U.S. since vaccination efforts commenced in mid-December, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of Thursday. Of that number, more than 62.4 million people—or 18.8% of the population—have received at least one shot, while 32.9 million people—or 9.9%—have been fully vaccinated.

Moreover, the number of daily vaccinations has surpassed two million and, according to Biden, his administration will reach their goal weeks earlier than anticipated.

This new vaccination data comes as the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. climbs past 29 million and the number of coronavirus-related deaths soars past 529,000 since the start of the pandemic one year ago on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Right now, there are three COVID-19 vaccines federally approved in the U.S. Both the respective vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require two doses, whereas the recently approved Johnson & Johnson one is just a single shot.

Biden has also stated that there will be enough vaccines for every American adult before the end of May. On Wednesday, the president unveiled a deal to secure 100 million more Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses. Any surplus, he said, would be shared with other countries once every single American has been vaccinated.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

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Nation

Hunter Biden Files Lawsuit Against Rudy Giuliani Over ‘Privacy Violation’

Published

14 hours ago

September 26, 2023

Alexander Carter

In a legal development that has garnered significant attention, Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has filed a lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, the former lawyer for President Trump. The lawsuit alleges that Giuliani violated Biden’s privacy rights by disseminating content obtained from Biden’s controversial laptop.

This complaint was submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and places the primary responsibility for the alleged violation of Biden’s digital privacy squarely on Giuliani. Additionally, the lawsuit names Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor who had previously represented Giuliani, as a co-defendant.

According to the complaint, Giuliani and Costello are accused of dedicating substantial time and effort to search for, hack into, tamper with, manipulate, copy, disseminate, and scrutinize data they claim to have obtained from Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop computer. However, Biden’s attorneys vehemently argue that the data in question did not originate from a laptop but rather from an external drive. This external drive is reported to contain pictures, videos, emails, and other data that have created legal and political challenges for Hunter Biden since they were first published by the New York Post in 2020.

Giuliani and Costello have openly acknowledged obtaining copies of files from a hard drive device that Hunter Biden allegedly left at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019. This information was subsequently provided to the New York Post in October 2020, leading to a story that relied on Hunter Biden’s emails to suggest that President Biden was involved in a business deal with a Ukrainian company that had appointed Hunter to its board.

House Republicans initiated an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, alleging that he used his position as vice president to dissuade Ukrainian prosecutors from investigating the company employing his son. These lawmakers also claim that the president had a hand in various business dealings orchestrated by Hunter Biden. President Biden has consistently denied any involvement in his son’s business affairs.

According to reports from Fox News, Hunter Biden’s legal team had previously sent cease-and-desist letters to Giuliani and others who obtained and disseminated the laptop’s contents. The present lawsuit seeks a court order to prevent Giuliani and others from accessing, tampering with, manipulating, or copying Biden’s data. It also demands the return of the alleged “device/hard drive” to Hunter Biden, along with any backup files, cloud files, or copies of the data.

This lawsuit marks the latest chapter in a series of legal actions taken by Hunter Biden and his lawyers to counteract leaks of personal information that thrust his private life into the spotlight of conservative media outlets.

Earlier this month, Hunter Biden sued former President Trump’s aide Garrett Ziegler, accusing him of disseminating explicit content from the device. In March, Biden initiated a countersuit against John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the Wilmington, Delaware, computer repair shop, accusing him of unlawfully disseminating personal information and invasion of privacy.

John Paul Mac Isaac initially filed a lawsuit against Hunter Biden, CNN, Politico, and Rep. Adam Schiff in October 2022, alleging defamation. Mac Isaac reported alerting the FBI after Hunter Biden failed to retrieve the laptop within three months of dropping it off at his shop. He claims that the laptop contained emails related to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s purported foreign business dealings and explicit videos.