Cotton: Biden Vaccine Mandate ‘Dripping with Scorn’ — ‘Almost Certainly Counterproductive’

Friday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) sounded off on President Joe Biden’s speech in which he announced vaccine mandates and other protocol measures as the country deals with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Cotton described Biden’s speech as “condescending” and “dripping with scorn.” He argued the mandate is “counterproductive” in getting Americans vaccinated.

“[T]his new federal vaccine mandate is just a political distraction,” Cotton emphasized. “It is probably unlawful, and it’s almost certainly counterproductive — political distraction because Joe Biden campaigned last year preposterously by attacking Donald Trump for this vaccine when [COVID-19] was unleashed on the world by China. But he said he would get it under control, and the economy would bounce back because of the vaccines the Trump administration created, yet here he is after the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal with his poll numbers plummeting. He’s trying to shift the focus away from those other crises back to the pandemic when it’s really his fault for having campaigned on this last year and attacked the Trump administration and even attacked the vaccines, as he and [Kamala] Harris that we have surging cases once again. It’s probably unlawful.”

“[I]t’s ineffective,” he continued. “I mean, by scolding and condescending to Americans dripping with scorn that somehow this is their fault that they’ve been infected with a virus, they’re not going to persuade people to get more vaccines. Look, the vaccines the Trump administration created in record time are very safe and effective. I would encourage everyone to talk to their doctor about their own personal health conditions and consider getting it. But dictating it through unlawful means in the kind of dripping scornful way that Joe Biden did yesterday is not going to help.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent