President Joe Biden said Tuesday a primary challenge facing the nation’s coronavirus vaccine rollout is Hispanic and African-Americans’ internet illiteracy.
“A lot of people don’t know how to register,” Biden said in a CNN town hall. “Not everybody in the community, in the Hispanic and the African-American community, particularly in rural areas that are distant and, or inner-city districts know how to use, know how to get online to determine how to get in line for that COVID vaccination at the Walgreens.”
"Minorities… don't know how to use, know how to get online."@JoeBiden is perpetuating a racist trope that minorities don't know how to use the internet.#BidenTownhall pic.twitter.com/hsVuC02PdC
— Steven Cheung (@CaliforniaPanda) February 17, 2021
The claim came amid a rambling town hall appearance. The gaffe-prone president at one point apparently forgot he was vaccinated, and lied about the pandemic preparedness inherited by his predecessor.
“It’s one thing to have the vaccine — which we didn‘t have when we came into office,” Biden said, although he received the second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on Jan. 11, before he even took office.
Biden says there was no vaccine when he came into office.
That is abjectly FALSE. President Trump brought about the fastest vaccine for a novel pathogen in history.
How does Joe get away with this? pic.twitter.com/OcFeVbQ3At
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) February 17, 2021
Although Biden likely meant to make an assertion repeated erroneously by Vice President Kamala Harris and White House staff, that there was no vaccine distribution outline from the Trump team, that claim too, is a lie.
“We certainly are not starting from scratch,” Fauci told reporters during a press briefing in January after Biden staffers made comments to CNN there were no plans for distribution.
Below is the chart from Trump’s Operation Warp Speed detailing the distribution process.
The Trump administration also put Biden on track to reach Biden’s self-proclaimed goal of serving 100 million doses in his first 100 days. The one million shots-a-day threshold Biden has attempted to claim credit for was a pace accomplished by Trump before Biden assumed office.
