Former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter have joined forces in an ad campaign to encourage Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Wednesday, the Ad Council released two ads featuring the former presidents urging people to “roll up your sleeve and do your part” to end the pandemic by getting vaccinated.
“This vaccine means hope,” Obama says in one of the spots. “It will protect you and those you love from this dangerous and deadly disease.”
“I’m getting vaccinated because we want this pandemic to end as soon as possible,” Carter says.
Donald Trump was the only living ex-president who did not participate in the campaign.
Yet he issued a sour tweet-like statement through his “Save America” political action committee on Wednesday night in which he took credit for the vaccine and invoked his racist term for the virus.
“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. I hope everyone remembers!” he said.
The Trump administration’s botched rollout of the vaccine led to delays and shortfalls in their promised allocations of doses to states.
Trump’s press office did not immediately respond to TPM’s inquiry on his absence in the ad campaign.
