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(CNN) – A frustrated and sometimes foul-mouthed President Donald Trump said in a campaign call that people are tired of hearing about the deadly pandemic that has killed more than 215,000 Americans and disparaged Dr. Anthony Fauci as a “disaster” that is “500 years ago.”
Referring to Fauci and other health officials as “idiots,” Trump declared that the country is ready to emerge from the health disaster, even as cases spike again and medical experts warn that the worst may be yet to come.
Trump claimed unsubstantiated that if Fauci were in charge, more than half a million people would be dead in the United States. And he described the recommendations offered by his own government to mitigate the spread of the disease as a heavy nuisance.
«People are tired of the covid. I have these big rallies, ”Trump said, in a call with campaign staff from the hotel that bears his name in Las Vegas, where he spent two nights in the middle of a campaign shift in the West. “People are saying ‘whatever. Leave us alone. ‘ They are tired of it. People are tired of listening to Fauci and all these idiots.
“Fauci is a good guy,” Trump continued. “It has been here for 500 years,” he added.
Fauci has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and is a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Around the same time that Trump was fuming over the phone, Fauci received the first Presidential Citation for Exemplary Leadership from the National Academy of Medicine during a virtual ceremony. Fauci said he was “speechless” upon receiving the award.
“We have many challenges ahead of us and I can’t help but think that we are really going through a disturbingly anti-science moment in certain segments of our society,” Fauci said during the virtual event.
Trump openly criticized Fauci as his campaign airs a television ad featuring the doctor implying that Fauci endorsed Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
Fauci questioned the announcement. He said they took his words out of context and asked the campaign to remove it. But the announcement was widely seen as an acknowledgment by the president’s campaign staff that Fauci has credibility among voters who have rejected Trump’s response.
The president trails his Democratic rival Joe Biden in polls in part because of his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump recently returned to the election campaign after being diagnosed with the virus. And he has rejected public health protocols at his political rallies. On the call, the president again poked fun at Biden’s social distancing measures.
Trump: ‘Fauci is a mess’
As he toured the electoral battlefields, Trump has been searching for a final message that will resonate with voters confused by the virus and distrustful of his response. Attempts by his advisers to convince Trump to take a more serious tone about the pandemic have stopped. At a rally in Nevada on Sunday, Trump tried to attack Biden by saying his rival would “listen to scientists” if he were elected president.
By contrast, Trump has stopped attending the meetings of his coronavirus task force, whose influence has drastically waned. Instead, the president has relied on the advice of Dr. Scott Atlas. Atlas is a radiologist whose views on mask wear and other mitigation practices are at odds with almost all scientific opinions.
The dynamics have caused tensions among government health officials. Even Fauci, to whose warnings about the virus Trump has reacted angrily for months.
Fauci is a mess. If he listened, we would have 500,000 dead, “he said in the campaign call on Monday. Then he said it would be 700,000 or 800,000.
“If there’s a reporter (on the call), you can have him just like I said, I couldn’t care less,” Trump said. A source gave CNN access to the call.
Trump tries to project optimism
Trump’s attempt to shore up his campaign staff 15 days before Election Day came amid widespread concerns among Republicans that his inability to perfect a final message will have dire effects not only on his own career, but also for the control of the Senate.
Although his anger was evident on the call, Trump sought to project optimism.
“This is the best I’ve been in any campaign,” Trump said of his re-election chances. “Today is the day that I have felt better in any of the campaigns,” he added.
“We are going to win,” he said. “I would not have said that three weeks ago,” he remarked.
After stories surfaced about flagging the campaign of potential defeat, Trump insisted he was satisfied with the work his team is doing. This included his secretary general, Mark Meadows, who has been blamed internally for mishandling Trump’s covid-19 diagnosis and his subsequent hospitalization.
I love Mark Meadows. It took me two years to get him out of Congress. Mark Meadows is doing a good job. I’m not going to fire him, “he said about it.
