Trump rips politicians over failing to disclose COVID-19 boosters
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump is slamming politicians who refuse to say whether they have received COVID-19 booster shots as “gutless.”
“You gotta say it. Whether you had it or not, say it,” Trump said in an interview that aired Tuesday night on the conservative One America News Network.
Trump, who was booed last month by supporters after revealing he had gotten a booster shot, has become increasingly vocal in calling out those who have questioned the vaccines’ efficacy and safety. It’s a change in posture for Trump as he eyes a White House run in 2024.
Even though the vaccines were developed during the Trump administration, they remain deeply unpopular with large segments of the Republican base, fueled in part by rampant disinformation. Trump, while in office, consistently downplayed the risk posed by COVID-19 and he received his vaccine privately, even as other members of his administrationwereinoculatedinpublic to help boost confidence in the shots.
“Well, I’ve taken it. I’ve had the booster,” Trump said in the interview. “I watched a couple of politicians be interviewed and one of the questions was, ‘Did you get the booster?’ .... And they, ‘Oh, oh,’ they’re answering it — like in other words, the answer is ‘Yes,’ but they don’t want to say it. Because they’re gutless.”
Trump did not name names, and his spokespeople did not immediately respond to questions about which politicians he was referencing. But Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, a rising star in the Republican Party who is often mentioned as a possible 2024 presidential contender, has notably declined to say whether he has received a booster.
Many House Republicans, including top Trump allies, have also declined to disclose their vaccination status.
PM Johnson apologizes:
Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized Wednesday for attending a garden party during Britain’s first coronavirus lockdown, but brushed aside demands that he resign for breaching the rules his own government had imposed on the nation.
The apology was Johnson’s attempt to assuage a tide of anger from the public and politicians over accusations he and his staff repeatedly flouted pandemic restrictions by socializing when it was banned.
Trying to calm the furor, Johnson acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that he went to a May 2020 garden party at his Downing Street office, though he said that he had considered it a work event to thank staff for their efforts during the pandemic.
“I want to apologize,” Johnson told lawmakers in the House of Commons. “With hindsight, I should have sent everyone back inside.”
Opponents and allies have been demanding Johnson come clean about the party, held when Britons were banned from meeting more than one person outside their households to curb the spread of the coronavirus. .
Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said the British public thought Johnson was “lying through his teeth.”
Prince Andrew lawsuit: A judge in New York has for now refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Britain’s
Prince Andrew by an American woman who says he sexually abused her when she was 17.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected an argument by Andrew’s lawyers that Virginia Giuffre’s suit should be thrown out at an early stage because of an old legal settlement she had with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier she claims set up sexual encounters with the prince.
Kaplan said the $500,000 settlement between Epstein and Giuffre didn’t involve the prince. Giuffre sued Andrew, 61, in August, saying she was coerced into sexual encounters with him in 2001 by Epstein and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre said she was sexually abused by Andrew multiple times.
Andrew’s lawyers had said the lawsuit lacked specificity and was disqualified by the deal she reached in 2009 with lawyers for Epstein.
Nkorea missile test: North Korea said Wednesday its
leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a successful flight test of a hypersonic missile he claimed would remarkably increase the country’s nuclear “war deterrent.”
The state media report came a day after the militaries of the United States, South Korea and Japan said they detected North Korea firing what they suspected was a ballistic missile into its eastern sea.
The Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday’s launch involved a hypersonic glide vehicle, which after its release from the rocket booster demonstrated “glide jump flight” and “corkscrew maneuvering” before hitting a sea target 621 miles away.
Photos released by the agency showed a missile mounted with a pointed cone-shaped payload soaring into the sky while leaving a trail of orange flames.
The launch was North Korea’s second test of its purported hypersonic missile in a week.
Iran frees detainee: An Iranian employee of the British Council detained for more than three years in Iran and sentenced to a decade in prison over widely criticized espionage charges has been freed and returned to the United Kingdom, the organization said Wednesday.
Aras Amiri won her appeal to Iran’s Supreme Court, the British Council announced. She had been arrested during a private trip to visit family in Tehran that did not involve her work at the government-founded cultural organization, it previously said.
There was no immediate word on her release from Iranian authorities. But Amiri’s lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, confirmed her acquittal to The Associated Press, saying that Iran’s Supreme Court had determined that her earlier espionage conviction in the country’s Revolutionary Court was “against Shariah,” or Islamic law. He did not elaborate.
Rapper’s slaying: A Tennessee man wanted in the fatal shooting of rapper Young Dolph in his hometown of Memphis was captured Tuesday in Indiana, while another man was indicted on murder charges, authorities said.
A grand jury indicted Cornelius Smith, 32, on first-degree murder and other charges in the shooting that killed Young Dolph, the Shelby County, Tennessee, District Attorney’s Office said.
Smith, who was arrested last month on an auto-theft warrant involving the vehicle used in Young Dolph’s killing, was being held without bond.
Separately, the U.S. Marshals Service said Justin Johnson, 23, was arrested, after a murder warrant was issued for him earlier this month. The agency did not say where in Indiana that Johnson was found.
Young Dolph, whose real name was Adolph Thornton Jr., was gunned down Nov. 17 at a cookie shop.