Donald Trump declares Dr. Anthony Fauci an ‘idiot’ and ‘a disaster’

On Monday, US President Donald Trump tried to cheer up his campaign staff two weeks before Election Day, dismissing warning tips about the coronavirus from scientific experts, as well as polls showing it behind. of his Democratic rival Joe Biden in key states on the battlefield.

Speaking to campaign aides on a conference call, Trump insisted that he believes he is going to win, saying he did not have that sense of confidence two weeks ago when he was hospitalized with Covid-19.

A week since he returned to the campaign, where his handling of the pandemic is a central issue for voters, Trump has criticized his administration’s own scientists for their criticism of his performance.

“People are tired of listening to Fauci and all these idiots,” Trump said of Dr. Anthony Fauci, declaring that the government’s top infectious disease expert is “a mess.” He suggested it would create controversy if he fired him.

Fauci, in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, said he was not surprised that Trump contracted the virus after he held large events without covering his face. Fauci also opposed the president’s campaign using his words in a campaign ad.

“I was worried that he would get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of overcrowding, without separation between people and almost no one with a mask,” Fauci said about the president.

Trump called his staff Monday from Las Vegas, where he was on the third day of a campaign shift to the West. He was going to hold rallies in Prescott and Tucson in Arizona before returning to the White House.

On Sunday night in Carson City, Nevada, Trump addressed thousands of supporters who sat side by side, cheering him on and booing Biden and the press.

The vast majority did not wear masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus, although cases in the state are increasing, with more than 1,000 new infections reported Saturday.

The Republican president, as he often does, warned that a Biden election would lead to more lockdowns and appeared to mock Biden for saying he would listen to scientists.

“It will listen to scientists. If I fully listened to scientists, right now we would have a country that would be in a massive depression,” Trump said.

In addition to public polls that Biden has an advantage, the former vice president enjoys another considerable advantage over Trump: money.

Trump raised $ 12 million during a fundraiser Sunday afternoon at the Newport Beach home of top Republican donor and tech mogul Palmer Luckey, which also featured a performance by the Beach Boys.

But in the past four months, Biden has raised more than $ 1 billion, a huge amount of money that has eclipsed Trump’s previously overwhelming cash advantage.

That’s evident in advertising, where Biden and his Democratic allies are on track to spend twice as much as Trump and Republicans in the final days of the race, according to data from ad-tracking firm Kantar / CMAG.

Although Trump has pulled out of advertising in the Midwestern states that secured his victory in 2016, he has invested heavily elsewhere, including North Carolina, where he is on track to spend slightly more than Biden in the coming days.

In Nevada, where Trump was close to winning in 2016, Democrats will spend more than Trump in recent days by a ratio of more than 3 to 1.

Trump argued that his rallies could help make up the difference in states that remain close.

“Where we have states that are tipping it could go either way,” he said. “I have the capacity to go to those states and demonstrate. Biden has no capacity, I go to a demonstration and we have 25,000 people. He goes to a demonstration and he has four people.”

Trump’s visit to the state is part of an aggressive program of campaign events, where he has relied heavily on scare tactics.

Trump’s rally in Carson City was held at an airport with a hill covered in golden scrub that provides a spectacular backdrop.

He relived good times from his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton, reviewed his longstanding feud with NFL players, and launched an extended spiel on water management policy, which he blamed people having to “flush the toilet. toilet 15 times “.

– AP

Associated Press writer Elana Schor in Washington contributed to this report.