The infectious disease expert spoke frankly about the president’s pandemic response in a “60 Minutes” interview over the weekend.
President Donald Trump attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci and his administration’s other public health officials as “idiots” in a heated call with his campaign staff Monday, even musing about potentially firing the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
“People are tired of Covid. People are saying, ‘Whatever, just leave us alone.’ People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots,” Trump said on the call, which included press.
“He’s been here for, like, 500 years. He’s like this wonderful sage telling us how — Fauci, if we listened to him, we’d have 700,000 [or] 800,000 deaths.”
Trump described Fauci as a “disaster” and added that “every time he goes on television, there’s always a bomb. But there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him.”
The president also presented himself as unconcerned by the prospect of his comments being circulated by the media, saying: “If there’s a reporter on, you can have it just the way I said it. I couldn’t care less.”
Trump took his feud with Fauci public later Monday in a pair of tweets that mentioned the immunologist’s media presence and mocked his bungled first pitch on Major League Baseball’s Opening Day in July.
“Dr.Tony Fauci says we don’t allow him to do television, and yet I saw him last night on @60Minutes, and he seems to get more airtime than anybody since the late, great, Bob Hope,” Trump wrote. “All I ask of Tony is that he make better decisions. He said ‘no masks & let China in’. Also, Bad arm!”
Trump went on to insist that Fauci “should stop wearing” his signature face mask featuring the logo for the Washington Nationals baseball team “for two reasons.”
“Number one, it is not up to the high standards that he should be exposing,” Trump wrote. “Number two, it keeps reminding me that Tony threw out perhaps the worst first pitch in the history of Baseball!”
After arriving in Arizona ahead of a campaign rally there Monday afternoon, Trump told reporters that Fauci “is a very nice man,” but that he sometimes “says things that are a little bit off, and they get built up, unfortunately.”
“He’s a nice guy. I like him, but he’s called a lot of bad calls,” Trump said, adding: “I don’t want to hurt him. He’s been there for about 350 years.”
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The president’s anger Monday seemed at least partly provoked by a series of frank remarks Fauci made about Trump and the federal government’s pandemic response in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday.
Fauci said Trump is reluctant to cover his face in public because he “equates wearing a mask with weakness,” and argued that the president’s frequent refusal to model the personal mitigation measure is “less an anti-science [position] than it’s more a statement.”
“You know, a statement of strength,” Fauci said. “Like, ‘We’re strong. We don’t need a mask.’ That kind of thing.”
Asked whether it made sense to him to view mask-wearing through such a lens of strength or weakness, Fauci responded: “No, it doesn’t. Of course not.”
Fauci also asserted that there has been a “restriction” on the flow of public health information from the administration, and said the White House had blocked him from making several media appearances.
“You know, I think you’d have to be honest and say yes. I certainly have not been allowed to go on many, many, many shows that have asked for me,” he said.
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President Trump attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci and his administration’s other public health officials as “idiots” in a fiery call with his campaign staff today, even musing about potentially firing the nation’s top infectious disease experthttps://t.co/2dgmDyHwrT
— POLITICO (@politico) October 19, 2020Trump described Fauci as a “disaster” and added that “every time he goes on television, there’s always a bomb. But there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him” https://t.co/0i99S7mOdU pic.twitter.com/kIJ346YueC
— POLITICO (@politico) October 19, 2020
I think I missed the passage in Sun Tzu where attacking someone much more popular than you with voters you need is great strategy. https://t.co/mFmpGKdXGe
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) October 19, 2020
Let that sink in: the top infectious disease scientist in the US government in the midst of a pandemic needs a security detail because the president’s supporters, egged on by the president – his boss, head of the government – hate him and want him gone. https://t.co/xql6AniwLg
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) October 19, 2020
Jesus https://t.co/31O767WwnO
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 19, 2020
President Trump on Dr. Anthony Fauci: "I don't want to hurt him. He's been there for about 350 years." pic.twitter.com/A4PXUCcq9A
— The Hill (@thehill) October 20, 2020
Trump could only dream about being half of the “idiot” that he claims Dr. Fauci is. He isn’t worthy to lick the boots of this man who has saved untold numbers of lives with his research and development of successful therapies for so many illnesses and disease. My husband has a rare auto immune disease and Dr. Fauci has developed effective treatments for his disease through his research. America needs Dr. Fauci and we are blessed to have a man like him who is willing to put up with all that he has because he is a dedicated doctor who cares about people and his country.
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