Fox News star Sean Hannity and Newsmax TV’s Bill O’Reilly may no longer be colleagues, but on Thursday night they joined forces again.
Their target: President Joe Biden’s speech to the nation about the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden claimed credit for former President Donald Trump’s Operation Warpspeed accomplishments, promising that all Americans will be eligible to get a vaccine by May 1st.
He didn’t acknowledge or thank the 45th president for the efforts that made this miracle of modern science possible — and both Hannity and O’Reilly had something to say.
Before the speech, O’Reilly said, “The only interesting thing will be if Biden gives credit to Trump for the fast-tracked vaccine.”
In his reaction after the speech, Hannity also called out Biden’s glaring omission.
“There you have it,” Hannity said after the speech ended. “Joe Biden, unity president that he is, taking credit for someone else’s work.”
“Joe, you want unity? Why don’t you just thank Donald Trump?” he asked. “You want us all to get along, you say. No Trump, no vaccine, Joe. Stop trying to take credit for something, frankly, you had nothing to do with. Nothing.”
“There were already a million vaccines being administered into peoples’ arms every single day when Biden was sworn in, 36 million doses had already been distributed,” he added.
Even the liberal Washington Post criticized Biden’s glaring omission of Trump’s efforts.
After “turning last year’s race for the White House into a referendum on the nation’s coronavirus response, Biden officials are building on some Trump-era ideas, while confronting challenges that also dogged Trump officials, including how to roll out a new vaccine and reopen schools. Like their predecessors, they have made abrupt changes to vaccine prioritization, recently elevating teachers in a directive that sowed confusion in some states,” The Washington Post’s Dan Diamond and Isaac Stanley-Becker wrote Thursday.
“These dynamics cast the early rollout in a new light. They undercut the notion that Biden started from scratch on efforts to distribute and administer vaccines, which has been central to his administration’s messaging, and show instead that he has accelerated efforts by scientists and pharmaceutical companies, as well as by career health and military officials, some of whom are still laboring inside his government.”
During the speech, O’Reilly also criticized the size of Biden’s stimulus package — and how the president didn’t acknowledge the massive cost of his rescue bill.
“The American Rescue” plan will save us, says the President. Maybe. But two trillion dollars comes with a price, pardon the pun. Mr. Biden will not acknowledge that. Perhaps another time.
— Bill O'Reilly (@BillOReilly) March 12, 2021
The Biden-backed stimulus bill will cost American taxpayers an estimated $43,000 every single second from now until the end of the year, critics have pointed out.