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Donald Trump has once again attacked his top public health expert, using a call with campaign staff Monday to call Anthony Fauci “a disaster” and claim that “people are tired of listening to Fauci and all these idiots. “discuss ways to combat the coronavirus.
The president spoke a day after CBS’s 60 Minutes aired an interview with Fauci, in which the 79-year-old said he was “not at all” surprised that Trump recently contracted the coronavirus, because he was holding crowded events with a minimal social distancing and mask. use in the days before the onset of symptoms.
Fauci also told CBS that the White House had been monitoring his media appearances.
“They certainly haven’t allowed me to go to many, many, many programs that they have asked me to do,” he said, adding that the restrictions had been inconsistent.
In the campaign call, Trump said: “Every time it goes on TV, there is always a bomb, but there is a bigger bomb if you shoot it.”
The chances of Trump firing Fauci have been a pervasive part of US political life under the pandemic, and the doctor’s direct responses to questions from the media often put him at odds with a president who routinely does. misleading claims or outright lies.
Fauci has also become something of a media darling, loved by the public, even appearing with his wife in a fashion shoot. Trump’s previous advisers whose profile soared to such heights – campaign manager, White House strategist and now prominent accused con artist Steve Bannon – have not lasted long.
On Monday, Trump acknowledged that reporters were listening to the call. But he seemed unconcerned that his attacks on Fauci were made public.
“If there’s a reporter, you can have him just like I said, I couldn’t care less,” he said.
The president also said that Fauci was a “nice guy” but said he had “been here for 500 years.” Fauci has directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, serving six presidents.
More than 8 million cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the US, and about 220,000 people have died. The number of cases has risen to its highest levels since July, as most states struggle to contain the virus. Fauci has said that the United States is not experiencing a second wave, because it never managed to contain the first.
When Trump attacked him, the infectious disease expert was accepting an award for “exemplary leadership.” In his comments on accepting the award, Fauci warned that the United States was “going through a disturbingly unscientific time in certain segments of our society.”
In his interview with CBS, Fauci said he had received death threats since the start of the pandemic and that his family members had been harassed. The images that accompany the interview showed the doctor and his wife walking by motor, accompanied by a federal security detail.
“It’s sad,” Fauci said, “that a life-saving public health message provokes such poison and animosity in me that it results in real and credible threats to my life and safety. But it bothers me less than the annoyances of my wife and children. I mean, give me a break. “
With two weeks before Election Day, Trump follows Joe Biden in national and most state polls, and also in polls on public confidence to handle the pandemic. He’s also behind Fauci: According to a New York Times / Siena College poll conducted in June, 67% of American voters say they trust Fauci as a source of information about the pandemic, while only 26% say the same of Trump.
On Monday, the president was in Arizona for two scheduled rallies. In the campaign call, he claimed without proof that the death toll would have been as high as 800,000 if he had followed Fauci’s advice.
“Fauci is a disaster,” he insisted, adding: “People are tired of the coronavirus. People are tired of listening to Fauci and all these idiots. “
Last week, the Trump campaign used Fauci’s comments in an ad praising Trump’s response to the pandemic. The doctor protested, saying that the ad “clearly strongly implies that I am supporting a political candidate, and I have not given them my permission to do so.”
He added: “The quote they took is completely out of context.”
News of Trump’s comments on the campaign call came as the Washington Post reported that members of the White House coronavirus task force led by Dr. Deborah Birx had sought the dismissal of Dr. Scott Atlas, a Stanford scientist and Fox News contributor who gained the president’s attention.
Atlas opposes accepted anti-Covid measures. Over the weekend, Twitter deleted a message from Atlas saying that the masks were not working to fight the virus. Trump has made similar claims.
