Donald Trump was booed by his supporters at a “Save America” rally in Cullman, Alabama on Saturday night after he encouraged his followers to get vaccinated.
“I believe totally in your freedoms, I do, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” Trump told the crowd. “But I recommend that you take the vaccines. I did it. It’s good take the vaccines.”
Trump’s suggestion was met with boos in the state with the lowest vaccination rate in the country of about 36 percent.
“You’ve got your freedoms,” he responded. “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.”
Trump was vaccinated before leaving the White House in January though he kept it secret until March.
Allies of Donald Trump have been reportedly trying to get him to adopt a pro-vaccination stance as the delta variant of the coronavirus rips through the country with deadly consequences for the unvaccinated, a majority of whom are supporters of the former president.
According to the Daily Beast, Trump was hesitant to the idea of promoting vaccines because he thought it would anger his base and could possibly help Joe Biden.
The city of Cullman, Alabama where Trump held his rally declared a COVID-19 related state of emergency before the event. The declaration allows the city to provide additional resources for the rally, that they hoped would reduce demand on Cullman Regional, which is already overcrowded with COVID patients. There are 56 coronavirus patients at Cullman Regional and 12 are on ventilators.
Statewide, there are no ICU beds left in Alabama. The Alabama Hospital Association revealed on Wednesday that the state has a 29-bed deficit.
