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Trump’s Last Con?

US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media upon arrival at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona on October 19, 2020. Trump is heading to Prescott, Arizona for a campaign rally. -... US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media upon arrival at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona on October 19, 2020. Trump is heading to Prescott, Arizona for a campaign rally. - US President Donald Trump went after top government scientist Anthony Fauci in a call with campaign staffers on October 19, 2020, suggesting the hugely respected and popular doctor was an "idiot." (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS

December 14, 2020 12:55 p.m.

Today we’re watching truly exciting, genuinely joyous images of people receiving the first non-trial study COVID vaccine injections in the United States. President Trump is predictably crowing about it as though he produced it in his study in the living quarters of the White House. Operation Warp Speed – the plan that involved federal financial support to vaccine research and development – is reasonably seen as standard federal government blocking and tackling during a global epidemic. But it is at least fair to say that providing financial back up that allowed vaccine makers to go big on vaccine development is the one area of COVID response Trump didn’t clearly screw up or sabotage.

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