Biden says during CNN town hall ‘we didn’t have’ a coronavirus vaccine when he took office

President Biden was slammed by conservatives on social media after saying, “We didn’t have a vaccine,” when he came into office on Jan. 20.

“It’s one thing to have the vaccine,” Biden told CNN’s Anderson Cooper during a town hall event on Tuesday night. “Which we didn’t have when we came into office. But a vaccinator, how do you get the vaccine into someone’s arm.”

Conservatives, including former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, quickly took issue with Biden’s comment.

“Biden says there was no vaccine when he came into office,” McEnany tweeted. “That is abjectly FALSE. President Trump brought about the fastest vaccine for a novel pathogen in history. How does Joe get away with this?”

“Biden claims during CNN Town Hall there was no vaccine when he came into office,” Hill columnist Joe Concha tweeted. “First shots were administered in mid-December. This isn’t a semantical thing or the president misspeaking. It’s a straight up lie on a very important point.”

“Just wow,” Townhall’s Katie Pavlich tweeted.

“This is a ludicrous lie from Biden,” former Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh tweeted. “On CNN he just claimed that there wasn’t a vaccine when he became president. Here’s a picture of him receiving his second dose on January 11, nine days before he took office. He had received the first dose three weeks earlier.”

Several members of the media defended Biden, with one Washington Post editor referring to Biden’s comment as a “gaffe.”

“It was a verbal stumble, a typical Biden gaffe, as he had already mentioned 50 million doses being available when he took office,” Glenn Kessler tweeted. “Ex Trump officials should especially cool the outrage meter, as it just looks silly.”

The first coronavirus vaccines in the United States were administered to healthcare workers in mid-December, and Biden received both doses prior to entering the White House. Roughly a million vaccines were being distributed per day when Biden took office.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.