As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never been on the “Dr. Fauci is a wonky doctor heartthrob” train. He’s a doctor and civil servant who does his job, and that’s nice, but he’s not a character in the White House soap opera. Except that everything in and around the White House becomes part of the Trump soap opera. For weeks now, there’s been a conversation about how Anthony Fauci no longer goes to the White House to brief Trump on the pandemic. No one has been sure if that’s Fauci’s call or Trump’s call. We still don’t know, but it’s looking more like the Trump White House is actively sidelining Fauci.
For months, Anthony S. Fauci has played a lead role in America’s coronavirus pandemic, as a diminutive, Brooklyn-accented narrator who has assessed the risk and issued increasingly blunt warnings as the nation’s response has gone badly awry. But as the Trump administration has strayed from the advice of many of its scientists and public health experts, the White House has moved to sideline Fauci, scuttled some of his planned TV appearances and largely kept him out of the Oval Office for more than a month even as coronavirus infections surge in large swaths of the country.
In recent days, the 79-year-old scientist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has found himself directly in the president’s crosshairs. During a Fox News interview Thursday with Sean Hannity, Trump said Fauci “is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes.” And when Greta Van Susteren asked him last week about Fauci’s assessment that the country was not in a good place, Trump said flatly: “I disagree with him.”
Fauci no longer briefs Trump and is “never in the Oval [Office] anymore,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Fauci last spoke to the president during the first week of June, according to a person with knowledge of Trump’s calendar.
For some administration officials, such developments have been an early sign their job was on the line. But Trump cannot directly fire Fauci, a career civil servant with more than 50 years in government service who enjoys strong bipartisan support in Congress. In any case, the president has no plans to get rid of him, said the official.
As for Fauci himself, although he is frustrated by the turmoil and the state of the outbreak, friends say he has no plans to abandon his post, which includes a critical role in the development of a coronavirus vaccine and treatments.
It’s as predictable as it gets – Fauci has always enjoyed positive, even glowing press, which always upsets the emperor. Fauci bases his advice entirely on science rather than unhinged fascist politics, also upsetting the emperor. And Fauci has come close to criticizing the emperor publicly. I mean, you get it. The WaPo story also includes a statement from a White House official that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things.” That’s hilarious because Donald Trump is on the record saying a million crazy lies about the pandemic, but now they’re fact-checking Fauci? Their list of Fauci’s mistakes are basically some of the statements from early in the outbreak when no one knew anything! Fauci never told people to drink bleach or take an antimalarial drug.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
We the people will not stand for the bus coming for Dr. Fauci.
And what can we do? Yet another line crossed by this nightmare of Trump. Who can stop him?
Presumably the Constitution.
@Mabs-other than the election (which I pray isn’t interfered with and goes the way the polls are showing), there is NO one to put a stop to this crap-clearly the people in his administration and the Republicans in Congress are willing to let it all slide.
Well, we knew this was coming. Nobody with intelligence, expertise, ethics, or a moral center is allowed to remain in #FredsFailure’s orbit.
Fauci became too popular and too often contradicted Trump, even if he usually tried to be as diplomatic as possible. If Trump could fire him, he would have by now.
Am I the only one who thinks that a 79 year should be enjoying retirement instead of dealing with a Fascist administration.
Something tells me he would have retired if Clinton was in office.
It’s a travesty just like this whole mess. He thinks , like a toddler, that if he fires people who tell the truth that no one will notice that we are on target for 100k more deaths at the rate the infection is spreading now.
Just trying to line up more scapegoats for November when he gets pressed about his total lack of leadership through this mess. He’ll blame Fauci and all his cult followers will swallow it and swear they would have worn masks etc, if only Fauci had told them too. I’m sure at some point there will be an inference that Fauci was also a Soros funded Democrat plant placed to make the administration look bad.
Because that is our world now.
Fed up with stories about White House officials telling on White House officials with no names for any of them. Enough. Get at least one name you can use or refuse to report the story, which is nothing more than a hatchet job. Reveal who is swinging the hatchet. None of the people in that White House making these decisions was elected or Senate confirmed. None of them have the necessary background to make these decisions. Fauci said best case scenario would be 200,000 dead by Labor Day. We are at 138,000 now and it’s mid-July and cases are skyrocketing. We are on pace to blow by Fauci’s numbers. This whole thing stinks of Ivanka and Jared, neither of whom is qualified to treat a common cold. The people have a right to know who is doing this.
Agreed. The press should not be giving anonymity to these reports.
I saw some military medical mofo on Stephanopoulos yesterday already laying the grounds for this smear on Fauci. The lesson learned from the Trump nightmare is that even the most mediocre hack in the government will be willing to go along with evil.
Usual Trump tactic. Transparent in its desperation and viciousness. Won’t sway those who see through Trump, but if there are still fence sitters that are wary of the science, this will be another proverbial and literal nail in their coffins.
I take a bit of comfort that the main reason we see these latest developments is because the media want to make sure the workings behind these announcements are shared, not just the message. I know his minions won’t turn the channel from Fox News, but keeping the curtain pulled back at least allows those that want to see that Trump doesn’t get it anymore than he ever did.
Stay the course people. Stay the course. If we thought March to July was long, July to November is going to be interminable.
Trump wants to make Fauci the scapegoat of his administration’s failed response to this pandemic. It won’t work. This is the same man/administration that downplayed the virus early on. This is the same administration that touted Hydroxychloroquinone, bleach, disinfectants and heat to kill an airborne virus. These are the same folks patting that ignorant orange turd on the back for finally wearing a mask 4 months into this pandemic. The only people to blame for this continuing pandemic are Trump, his minions, his supporters and the selfish folks who scream “my freedoms” while crowding into bars, restaurants, and beaches without a f’ing care in the world.
Did you also see that Chuck Woolery thinks it’s all a hoax too? Seriously, not him too! Sad but also gave me a laugh for the day, honestly thought he had died.
It was obvious during the daily Covid press conference era that Fauci frequently had to do a complicated tap dance of stating the facts while not contradicting the nonsense spewing from Trump’s mouth. If this is the course the White House wants to take then I vote for Fauci throwing the whole administration under the bus and he tells us what is REALLY going on behind closed doors.