Donald Trump issued a series of digs at Dr Anthony Fauci as the election nears
Credit: Scott P. Yates/Rockford Register Star via AP
US Election Article Bar
Donald Trump has launched a remarkable series of attacks on his top infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci, calling him a “disaster”, criticising his TV appearances and even mocking his recent poor opening pitch for Washington DC’s baseball team.
The US president’s repeated swipes at the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases escalated a clash that has been simmering for months but also dominated coverage with just two weeks left to the election.
"Fauci is a disaster. If I listened to him, we’d have 500,000 deaths,” Mr Trump said in a morning call with his campaign that reporters were allowed to listen in on. He continued to voice similar criticism throughout the day.
Mr Trump appeared to have been triggered by a high-profile interview Dr Fauci gave on Sunday where he said he was not surprised the US president caught Covid-19 given the “super-spreader” event he held at the White House to reveal his Supreme Court nominee.
During the interview on NBC’s Meet the Press Mr Fauci also said that the president appeared to believe that wearing a face mask was a sign of “weakness” and disagreed with that point of view.
The political wisdom of Mr Trump’s attacks were called into question by strategists and pundits given polls have shown Dr Fauci is more trusted by US voters to give accurate Covid-19 information than the president.
It also comes with polls consistently showing most Americans disapprove of the way Mr Trump has handled the pandemic, which explains why Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, has put the issue at the centre of his campaign.
A source of the long-running tensions has been Mr Trump’s willingness to equivocate on the need to wear masks to stop the virus’s spread and his emphasis on protecting the economy by limiting restrictions on normal behaviour.
Mr Trump began the day of criticism on Monday morning.
CNN, one of the country’s leading cable news channels and a frequent source of the president’s ire, was running Dr Fauci’s comments from the day before high up in its morning bulletins.
"People are tired of Covid. I have these huge rallies," Mr Trump said in the call to campaign staff from his hotel in Las Vegas that morning.
"People are saying ‘whatever, just leave us alone’. They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots."
"Fauci is a nice guy," the president went on, before adding an apparent jibe about the length of time Dr Fauci had spent in the US government, saying: "He’s been here for 500 years."
Mr Trump also said: “Every time he goes on television there’s always a bomb, but there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him.” The remark suggested the president has thought through the backlash Dr Fauci’s firing would trigger.
The remarks, some of the his most explicitly critical about the senior member of the White House’s coronavirus taskforce to date, were followed up with similar comments later on Monday.
Disembarking from Air Force One for the first of two rallies in Arizona, the president told reporters of Dr Fauci: “He gets a lot of television. He loves being on television, and we let him do it.
“Sometimes he says things that are a little bit off, and they get built up, unfortunately. But he’s a nice guy. I like him. But he’s called a lot of bad calls.”
Addressing the crowd at Phoenix, Mr Trump once again targeted Dr Fauci.
“You know Biden wants to lock it down. He wants to listen to Dr Fauci. He wants to listen to Dr Fauci”, Mr Trump said to boos from some supporters in the crowd.
…yes https://t.co/LZyAQugqoW
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 19, 2020
Mr Biden shared a tweet quoting the “he wants to listen to Dr Fauci” comment and added simply "yes”.
The Democratic nominee also released a statement saying: “President Trump even criticised me yesterday for listening to the scientists — that’s not an attack, that’s a badge of honour.”
The president than even went one step further, repeatedly mocking Dr Fauci’s disastrous throw of the opening pitch for the Nationals, the Washington DC baseball team, earlier this year.
Instead of reaching the catcher the throw by Dr Fauci, 79, sailed off in another direction before falling to the ground meters away from its target.
The president told the Phoenix crowd that Dr Fauci had a “bad arm” before appearing to act out the poor throw.
A perfect strike for the American people! https://t.co/LqqvhWpqis
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020
On Twitter, Mr Trump retweeted a clip of the throw and also shared a piece of footage of himself throwing an opening pitch well. The footage appeared to be from decades ago.
A poll taken conducted for NBC in late July and early August showed that 31 per cent of respondents trusted Mr Trump on Covid-19 but 51 per cent trusted Dr Fauci.
Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator for West Virginia who has been reluctant to directly criticise the president given the state voted for Mr Trump, was among those to voice concern.
Mr Manchin tweeted: “Please, Mr. President – have you no decency and respect? Dr Fauci has served the American people for six administrations – both Democrats and Republicans. He has always prioritised the health and safety of the American people.
“Continuing to name call and ridicule a professional like Dr Fauci politicises the lifesaving science and will only cost more Americans their lives.”
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