“This is our chance,” adds Bill Clinton, with Jimmy Carter delivering the closing message: “Now, it’s up to you.”
PSAs were produced by the Ad Council and the COVID Collaborative as part of the Covid-19 Vaccine Education Initiative’s “It’s Up To You” campaign, and the project that specifically featured former presidents and first ladies started last December.
Thursday’s videos are just the latest public initiative by former presidents not to include Donald Trump, who stepped down in January after President Joe Biden took office.
As part of the inaugural proceedings, Obama, Bush and Clinton released a joint video statement promoting bipartisanship and wishing Biden the best. All three men also appeared in person for Biden’s oath; the 96-year-old Carter did not attend.
Trump was absent on the day of the inauguration, refusing to participate in the ceremonial transfer of power after falsely alleging for weeks that Biden had illegitimately won the race for the White House in 2020. Biden said Trump’s decision not to attend was a “good thing” after the Capitol insurrection on January 6.
The launch of vaccination PSAs comes after several media outlets reported this month that Donald and Melania Trump received their coronavirus vaccines in particular at the White House in January.
Asked whether Donald Trump was invited to participate in the new videos, a spokesman for the Advertising Council reiterated that the project started last year and that one of the videos was filmed on the opening day, when Trump was not present.
“We just learned last week that President Trump was vaccinated and we were very happy that he was advising Americans to ‘give their injection’,” the spokesman said in a statement.
Spokesmen at Trump’s post-presidential office did not immediately return a request for comment on the videos or whether he had the opportunity to appear in them.
Following Congress’ final approval of the $ 1.9 trillion Biden coronavirus relief package, Trump issued a statement twice stating that “I hope everyone remembers” the role his administration played in accelerating vaccine development.