‘Maybe by the end of October’: Trump claims COVID-19 vaccine just weeks away

President Donald Trump predicted a vaccine would be available before the Nov. 3 election.

The president gave himself an A-plus on his response to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 200,000 in the U.S., and told "Fox & Friends" it would soon end.

"We're rounding the corner, with or without a vaccine," Trump said. "They a hate it when I say it, but that's the way it is. We're rounding the corner on the pandemic, and we've done a phenomenal job -- not just a good job. Other than public relations, but that's because I have fake news. You can't convince them of anything, they're a fake, but we have done -- on public relations, I give myself a D. On the job itself, we take an A-plus with the ventilators and now with the vaccines that are years ahead of schedule."

The president claimed 2 million to 3 million people would have died if Joe Biden was president, pointing to the former vice president's experience with H1N1, which killed about 12,000 people in the U.S.

"That was the flu, this is a virus," Trump said. "But it was a much less lethal situation, but it was handled so badly. They lost thousands and thousands of people, and they agreed that they handled it badly. Now he's telling us how to handle this, and we don't need his advice. We really don't want his advice. We'd like them to be honest because it's good for the country, you know, be honest."

The Fox News hosts laughed at the president's remarks, and he then claimed Democrats didn't want a vaccine to prevent the deadly virus that has killed 200,000 in the U.S.

"Everybody wanted a vaccine, they wanted it so badly," Trump said. "Once they realized I'm getting it very soon, within a matter of weeks, once they said, oh, he's getting it, then they started hating the concept of having the vaccine. That's so bad for our country. It's doing really well. Pfizer and other companies, actually we have three that are really doing really well."

"I would say that you'll have it long before the end of the year, maybe," he added, "maybe by the end of October."