Biden: Police, emergency responders should be fired if they won't get vaccinated

Pam Key
Breitbart
Thu, 21 Oct 2021 00:01 UTC

During a town hall on CNN on Thursday, President Joe Biden said police officers and emergency responders should be let go if they refuse their employers ' mandates to get vaccinated against COVID.

Anchor Anderson Cooper said, "Mr. President, let me ask you a follow-up about that. As many as one in three emergency responders in some cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, right here in Baltimore, are refusing to comply with city vaccine mandates. I'm wondering where you stand on that. Should police officers, emergency responders be mandated to get vaccines? And if not, should they be stay at home or let go?"

Biden said, "Yes and yes. By the way, by the way, I waited until July to talk about mandating because I tried everything else possible. The mandates are working. All this stuff about people leaving and people getting it, you have everyone from United Airlines to Spirit, all these airlines all 96, 97% of the people have gotten the vaccine. All the talk about all these folks who are going to leave the military if they're mandated. Not true. You got about a 90 some percent vaccination rate."

He added, "Two things that concern me, one are those who just try to make this a political issue. Freedom. I have the freedom to kill you with my COVID. No, come on, freedom? Number one. Number two, the second one is that, you know, the gross misinformation that's out there. Like what they're saying about my buddy Colin Powell, he was my friend, passed away. Colin Powell was vaccinated, and he still died. Well, he knew he had serious underlying conditions, and it would be difficult — he clearly would have been gone earlier had he not gotten the vaccine, had he not gotten the shots. But my generic point is there's so much misinformation. You know what I find fascinating? I turn on Fox to find out how popular I am, but — "

Cooper said, "How are you doing there?"

Biden joked, "I'm doing very well. I think I'm at 3% favorable. But all kidding aside, one of the things I find, do you realize they mandate vaccinations?"

Cooper said, "At Fox headquarters?"

Biden quipped, "Yeah. I find that mildly fascinating."

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Comment: Also at the town hall, Biden said he was open to altering filibuster process for Democrats' voting rights bill 'and maybe more'. From Just the News:

President Biden said Thursday night he would be open to altering the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation "and maybe more," a shift in the president's position on the Senate voting rule.

Biden made the comment during a televised CNN town hall in Baltimore when asked about Democrats' voting rights bills being blocks by Republicans in the evenly divided Senate.

CNN host Anderson Cooper asked: "When it comes to voting rights, just so I'm clear though, you would entertain the notion of doing away with the filibuster on that one issue, is that correct?"

Biden replied: "And maybe more." However he also said attempting to do so now would hurt his ability to pass his economic agenda, considering Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have expressed opposition to altering the filibuster, which would effectively allow Senate Democrats to pass legislation without a single Republican vote.

"I lose at least three votes right now to get what I have to get done on the economic side of the equation, the foreign policy side of the equation," Biden said.

The president said he would propose an intermediate return to the so-called "talking filibuster," which requires senators to speak continuously on the floor to hold up votes, according to CNN.