- Former lead strategist for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign James Carville said Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that Republican philosophy was “God must surely want wealthy white people to be first in line to get the vaccine.”
Reacting to reports that seniors in a wealthy enclave in Key Largo received vaccinations in mid-January, Carville said, “The DeSantis thing favoring wealthy people getting the vaccine, no one’s surprised. They want the tax code to favor wealthy people. They want the entire system to be rigged in favor of wealthy people. So why wouldn’t someone try to rig the vaccine to be in favor of wealthy people? It is totally consistent with modern Republican philosophy that wealthy people get to cut in line because the fact that they are wealthy makes them virtuous themselves. That’s even a whole branch, the fact that you are wealthy means that God loves you, and God must surely want wealthy white people to be first in line to get the vaccine. I mean, it makes total sense if you think like they do, doesn’t it?”
He continued, “Well, I think there is all the difference in the world. I’m being slightly sarcastic here. There is a difference between getting the vaccine. I am not surprised that the system is rigged in Florida to favor wealthy people. I think it is a basic instinct of people like Ron DeSantis. I’m surprised he didn’t say, of course, I did. Everything I do in my administration is to serve wealthy people. You know, you can see that in public policy time and time and time again. And, you know, you look at all these voting rights cases. They’re not trying to stop wealthy people from voting. They’re trying to stop, you know, middle and lower middle class, people, African American people, Hispanic people, immigrants, anything else. That’s who they’re trying to stop from voting.”
He added, “I’m not surprised that we have this thing with the vaccine. I’m not at all surprised. The only thing that kind of surprised me more is we hadn’t had more of it. I suspect we’re going uncover a lot more before we’re done. I really do.”
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