Broken Promises: One Year Ago, Joe Biden Said He ‘Wouldn’t Demand’ Mandatory Vaccines

By HANNAH BLEAU

• One year ago, Joe Biden, who was then president-elect, promised that he “wouldn’t demand” mandatory coronavirus vaccines for the American people — a promise he has since broken, attempting to coerce millions of American workers to get the jab against their will.

• “No. I don’t think it should be mandatory. I wouldn’t demand it be mandatory,” Biden said after a reporter asked if the coronavirus vaccine should be mandatory. “But I would do everything in my power — I don’t think masks need to be made mandatory nationwide.”

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  The White House maintained that position as recently as July. During a July 23 press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki explicitly said vaccine mandates are “not the role of the federal government.”

  “Well, I think the question here — one, that’s not the role of the federal government; that is the role that institutions, private-sector entities, and others may take,” she said.

  “That certainly is appropriate. Also, local communities are going to take steps they need to take in order to protect people in their communities,” Psaki continued.

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  Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also denied a forthcoming federal mandate that same month:

  

  
  Even Dr. Anthony Fauci, famous for flip-flopping on a range of coronavirus-related topics including masking, denied the prospect of a federal vaccine mandate over a dozen times since the start of the pandemic.

  “There’s no secret that I feel we should not have central mandates from the federal government,” Fauci once said.

  Another time, Fauci said of a mandate, “I don’t see it on a national level, merely because of all the situations you have upon — encroaching upon a person’s freedom to make their own choice.”

  Fauci, who now says individuals must “put aside” concerns about individual liberty, also called a federal mandate something that would be both “unenforceable and not appropriate.”

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  Those positions seemingly changed in September after Biden delivered a divisive speech, scolding unvaccinated Americans for refusing to get the shot.
  “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us,” he said, reprimanding unvaccinated Americans while contending the decision is “not about freedom or personal choice.”

  During that speech, Biden announced his decision to direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop a rule forcing private businesses with 100 or more employees to mandate the vaccine or implement weekly testing requirements. That rule would affect an estimated 80 million workers.

  Months later, OSHA released the rule, although the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion to stay OSHA’s emergency rule, ordering the federal agency to “take no steps to implement or enforce” the mandate “until further court order.”

  OSHA’s website currently states:

  On November 12, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion to stay OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard, published on November 5, 2021 (86 Fed. Reg. 61402) (“ETS”). The court ordered that OSHA “take no steps to implement or enforce” the ETS “until further court order.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit now has jurisdiction over ETS challenges and DOL has filed a motion to lift the stay. While OSHA remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation. Note that the comment period is separate from the litigation.

  Additional litigation is underway as well, as a federal judge this week granted a preliminary injunction against the administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandate.

  A Rasmussen Reports survey released on Friday showed that 57 percent of voters do not believe the federal government has authority to mandate coronavirus vaccines.

  Biden, however, has continued to dismiss the concerns of Americans who do not want the vaccine, suggesting that they are acting in an unpatriotic manner.

  “It’s about life and death, that’s what it’s about… it’s about being patriotic, doing the right thing,” he said in October.