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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump called coronavirus expert Anthony Fauci a “disaster” on Monday (Oct. 19), expressing frustration with the scientist during a call designed to reassure campaign staff that he has a He was on his way to victory on November 3 despite lagging behind in opinion polls.
Trump and Fauci, a member of his coronavirus task force, have disagreed on the best way to handle a pandemic that has killed more than 219,000 people in the United States and weakened the Republican president’s re-election case.
Fauci, 79, who has served under Republican and Democratic presidents and is one of America’s most admired scientists, has urged that COVID-19 continue to be taken seriously. Trump has suggested that the worst is over.
“Fauci is a disaster. If he listened to him, we would have 500,000 deaths,” Trump said during the call, which the campaign allowed journalists to join.
Fauci has openly complained about being quoted in a Trump re-election campaign ad discussing the administration’s pandemic response, and said in an interview broadcast Sunday night on CBS’s 60 Minutes that he was not surprised that the Trump himself contracted the virus.
Trump, speaking from his flagship hotel in Las Vegas before two Arizona protests, said Fauci bombed during television interviews, but that it would be “a bigger bomb if he gets fired.”
Fauci’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump said Americans were fed up with the pandemic restrictions.
“People say, ‘Whatever. Leave us alone’. They are tired. People are tired of listening to Fauci and all these idiots, “said Trump, whose protests include many supporters who do not wear masks and stand shoulder to shoulder, at odds with guidance from Fauci and other public health experts.
“Fauci is a good guy. He’s been here for 500 years,” Trump added.
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander issued a statement calling Fauci, who has been director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases since 1984, “one of the most distinguished public servants in our country.”
“If more Americans heeded his advice, we would have fewer COVID-19 cases, and it would be safer to go back to school, go back to work, and go out to eat,” Alexander said.
Trump’s conference call was intended to cheer on his national team of campaign workers amid a series of stories that suggested a campaign in crisis.
With 15 days to go until Election Day, Democrat Joe Biden has an advantage in national opinion polls and in many states where elections are likely to be decided.
“We have momentum at the exact moment we want momentum,” campaign manager Bill Stepien said on the call.
Trump called the news about internal conflict “bullshit” and said he felt he was in a better position now than he did four years ago when he scored an unlikely victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“This is the best I’ve ever felt,” he said.
Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said over the weekend that the national poll numbers were misleading because the must-have states were close.
“All the evidence we have shows that this is going to go to the end,” he wrote in a memo to donors.
