On Saturday, former President Donald Trump was giving a speech in an Alabama rally when he was met with boos after asking his supporters to get vaccinated.
“And you know what? I believe totally in your freedoms. I do. You’ve got to do what you have to do,” Trump said during his remarks. “But, I recommend: take the vaccines. I did it. It’s good. Take the vaccines.”
The crowd replied with boos. Trump immediately refrained from urging them again and continued by saying it’s still their “freedom.”
“No, that’s okay. That’s all right. You got your freedoms,” Trump said, echoing rhetoric from opponents of mask and vaccine mandates. “But I happen to take the vaccine. If it doesn’t work, you’ll be the first to know. Okay? I’ll call up Alabama, I’ll say, hey, you know what? But [the vaccine] is working. But you do have your freedoms you have to keep. You have to maintain that.”
As the nation is struggling again with the surging COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant, the red states are especially suffering, mostly due to their low vaccination rate and lax mask rules.
And among all of them, Alabama reportedly has the lowest vaccination rate in the entire country, with only 36 percent of its population are fully vaccinated.
Even Alabama’s Gov. Kay Ivey (R) has blamed the unvaccinated people for the resurgence in the state.
