President Donald Trump called Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease specialist, a “disaster” Monday, a day after Fauci said in an interview that he was not surprised when the president tested positive for COVID-19 because Trump regularly has refused to wear the mask “as a force. “
In a call to the convention with his staff crossed on Monday, Trump said Fauci would throw a “bomb” every time he went on TV, but that it would be “a bigger bomb if you hit him. This guy’s a mess. “
Trump added that other people don’t need to hear about the pandemic and say “leave us alone” to public fitness experts like Fauci, who has been director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.
“People are tired of listening to Fauci and all those idiots,” Trump said.
Later monday, the president posted a tweet criticizing Fauci.
A day earlier, Fauci had been asked in a CBS News interview “60 Minutes” if he was surprised that the president had contracted the coronavirus.
“Absolutely not, ” replied Fauci.
“I was afraid he would be in poor health when I saw him on an absolutely precarious stage of overcrowding: no separation between people and almost no one dressed in a mask,” he said, referring to the Rose Garden occasion at the White House. where Trump was nominated. Judge Amy Coney Barrett at the Supreme Court. “When I saw him on TV, I said, ‘Oh my God. Nothing smart can come out of this, it’s going to have to be a problem. ‘And then, of course, this turned out to be an occasion for mass circulation.
Among those who attended the September 26 rite at the White House, nearly a dozen tested positive for coronavirus, adding To Trump, first girl Melania Trump, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, former White House producer Kellyanne Conway, the former Governor of New Jersey. Chris Christie, Utah Sen. Mike Lee and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis.
Knowledge speaks for itself: Dr. Anthony Fauci says the White House has organized a ”mass market event” for the coronavirus
The “60 Minutes” interview was not the first time Fauci expressed fear of the president’s lack of social estating since the beginning of the epidemic, nor was it the first time Trump criticized the famous immunologist, whose horrific predictions contradicted those of presidents the most. positive evidence of how the United States was handling the pandemic.
One domain they have not agreed on is the importance of dressing in masks to combat the spread of the virus.
Fauci told “60 Minutes” that he thinks Trump, who rarely wears a mask in public, especially before he gets inflamed, avoids the mask because he sees it as ‘a force, like, ‘We’re strong, we don’t want a mask, that sort of thing. ‘
“He equates wearing a mask with a weakness,” added Fauci, who said this vision made no sense to him.
But he did not think that the president’s reluctance to wear a mask rooted in general opposition to science.
“I think he believes in science,” Fauci said, “if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have entrusted his aptitude to the highly professional doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. “
Trump has publicly questioned the effectiveness of the mask and questioned Fauci’s initial recommendation to avoid them during the early days of the pandemic to help his claim that there is wide-effectiveness debate about its effectiveness, but Fauci said Sunday there was no “doubt. “that “the mask really paints to save the infection. “
Fauci, who said he was looking to “put an end to this once and for all,” said his first statements telling others not to rush to buy masks stemmed from fears that hospitals would experience shortages. of surgical masks or N95. then studies have shown that masks are more effective than you think and that cloth liners work, reducing stress on the mask source like those used in hospitals.
“When you find out you’re wrong, it’s a manifestation of your honesty to say, “Hey, I was wrong. I did some later experiments and now he’s here,” Fauci said.
In some other case where the president twisted his position, Fauci said it was “amazing” that Trump’s crusade would take out of context one of his statements in an ad to mean he praised management. of the pandemic through Trump.
“I do not fix and will never publicly make any political candidates. And here I am, they’re putting me in the middle of a crusade ad. Which I found outrageous. ” Fauci says. ” I meant the complaining pictures of the working group that “God, we were killing ourselves seven days a week. I don’t think we’ve done more than that. “
When asked if the ad angry him, Fauci replied, “That’s true, frankly. “
“I’ve been checked out. “
Trump defended his comments about Fauci by talking to a rally striker in Prescott, Arizona. He called Fauci a “great man” who “loves being on television. “
“Sometimes he says things that are a little wrong and accumulate, unfortunately,” Trump said. “But he’s a great guy. I like it. But he called a lot of bad decisions. “
When asked why he didn’t fire Fauci, Trump told reporters, “I don’t need to. I don’t need to hurt him. He’s been here for about 350 years. “
At the rally, Trump criticized his Democratic opponent Joe Biden for “listening to Dr. Fauci. “
“. . . Yes,” Biden tweeted in reaction to CNN reporter Daniel Dale Trump’s “new line of attack. “
. . . Yes https://t. co/LZyAQugqoW
Biden responded to Trump’s attacks on Fauci in a statement.
‘Coronavirus infections are increasing across the country, but President Trump has to attack Dr. Fauci today as a ‘disaster’ and call ‘idiots’ public fitness experts rather than present a plan to defeat this virus or follow his recommendation on how we can save lives and revive our economy,” Biden said.
Biden was not the Democrat who took Trump’s complaint about the Fauci as an opportunity to criticize the president for his leadership of the coronavirus.
“220,000 Americans have died and infection rates are expanding in 43 states. After Dr. Fauci’s misleading words in a TV ad last week, Trump is now attacking him as a “crisis. “For what? To tell you the truth,” tweeted Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, D-Calif. “We all know who the crisis is here, Mr. President. You. “
220,000 Americans have died and infection rates are emerging in 43 states. After Dr. Fauci’s misleading words in a television ad last week, Trump is now attacking him as a “crisis. “For what? Having told the truth, we all know who the crisis is here, Mr. President. https: //t. co/WjC0Uw4VbF
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee came here in defense of the Fauci amid the president’s criticism.
“Dr. Fauci is one of the most prominent public servants in our country. He served six presidents, with Ronald Reagan. Si Americans paying attention to his advice, we would have fewer cases of COVID-19, and that would be safer. “go back to school and repaint and eat out, ” said Alexander in a statement.
Trump’s complaint about Fauci on Monday came the same day the National Academy of Medicine awarded the disease its first Presidential Mention for exemplary leadership.
At the awards ceremony, the president of the academy, Victor J. Dzau praised Fauci’s “firm and consistent leadership in the COVID-19 pandemic” and praised him for “offering an unwavering and reliable voice to the country and the world in the call of science. “policy and public health. “
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