John Cooper, the frontman and bassist for the Grammy-nominated Christian rock band SKILLET, says that he is “confused” by President Joe Biden‘s plan for the country to begin to find a degree of normalcy and begin to move on from the coronavirus pandemic by the July Fourth holiday.
Biden delivered a speech on Thursday — the first anniversary of COVID-19 lockdowns — emphasizing the need for unity and courage as the country nears the light at the end of the tunnel.
“I will not relent until we beat this virus,” Biden told the nation in his first primetime address as president, “But I need you to get vaccinated when it’s your turn and when you can find an opportunity. And to help your family, your friends, your neighbors get vaccinated as well. Because here’s the point,” he continued, “If we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together — by July the Fourth, there’s a good chance you, your family and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day. … After this long hard year, that will make this Independence Day something truly special.”
The 45-year-old Cooper, who defines himself as “conservative in ideology,” addressed Biden‘s comments during the latest episode of his “Cooper Stuff” podcast. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “President Biden just came on and gave his speech about lockdown. Am I the only one confused as poop? I am so confused about what’s going on… Is anybody as confused as me?
“I look at the COVID numbers… Am I crazy? I literally may be crazy… I look at the COVID numbers. Unless I’m being lied to, they seem to be dropping like crazy,” he continued. “I’m talking about not only number of deaths, [but] the number of people actually getting COVID. Hospitalizations, numbers are way down. They came out with new stuff about the vaccines saying they’re actually working better than people thought. I’m not vaccinated, but I know a lot of people that are. And all the numbers are, like, it’s 94 percent effective. All this really good news is coming out, it looks like. Then President Biden comes on, and he’s, like, ‘Guys, we’re gonna get through this. It’s gonna be great. And we can have hope. And we’re all coming back.’ So he gave this sort of uplifting [speech]. And then he said, ‘So here’s what we’re trying to do: July 4th, if things go good, you can have a few family members over for a cookout outside.’ And then says, ‘Not large groups.’ [Laughs]
“I don’t know what this means,” Cooper, whose wife Korey is a member of SKILLET, added. “I am so confused, because we can’t get real information. We’re being lied to constantly. Why? Because everybody lies. Everybody has an agenda on TV. They just feed you propaganda.”
According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 29 million cases have been reported in the U.S., with more than 530,000 deaths reported from the virus. The United States cumulative cases represent roughly one-quarter of the more than 117 million global cases.
During the pandemic, SKILLET released a deluxe version of its latest album, “Victorious: The Aftermath”, with new songs. Cooper and his bandmates also played several drive-in concerts, and he released his debut book, “Awake & Alive To Truth (Finding Truth In The Chaos Of A Relativistic World)”.
