Candace Owens Makes Anti-Vaccination Talking Point, Donald Trump Pushes Back

In an interview with former President Donald Trump, conservative political commentator Candace Owens attempted to make a correlation between two facts: that there were more COVID-19 deaths in 2021 than 2020, and that more people are vaccinated now than in 2020.

On her "Daily Wire" podcast “The Candace Show,” which was recorded at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and released Wednesday, Owens suggested that since "more people have died" since the COVID vaccines became widely available in 2021 that it calls into question the effectiveness of the vaccines.

Trump pushed back against the claims and took credit for the speedy manufacturing of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Trump told Owens, “no, the vaccines work ... The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine. But it’s still their choice. And if you take the vaccine, you’re protected.”

Trump's claims are supported by facts, that the vaccine offers higher protection from the virus and dramatically decreases the risk of serious illness but does not completely eliminate the possibility of serious illness. Trump has said that he received a booster shot as well amid the surge of Omicron, and an expected huge spike over the holidays.

Trump also made the press his target in the interview, claiming the press is “among the most dishonest group of people ever anywhere no matter what, they’re corrupt.” He said what is needed is an expansion of the power of the individual to sue anyone writing terrible things about them.

Right now, Trump says that the public does not have the power to sue the press, but that lawsuits should make them pay heavy prices for what they write would help curb some of the negative effects. “They’re caught all the time, you have to be able to do something about it,” Trump said to which Owens agreed.

Trump also claimed that in the U.S. there are “corrupt elections,” which was in reference to the 2020 presidential election. Trump has repeatedly asserted that the election was rigged against him, despite contrary evidence.

Owens also asked Trump “tell me one good thing Joe Biden has done in office?”

Trump responded “the one good thing is that he showed how bad it is with this kind of a philosophy. Because we won the election, but if it was more standard where we actually took office people would have been criticizing.”

He again criticized the press for not holding Biden accountable for inflation, the southern border, and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.