White House responds to Dr Fauci's criticisms of pandemic response
- by Lorene Schwartz
- in People
- — Nov 3, 2020
As the US grapples with a major spike in new coronavirus cases ahead of Election Day, President Trump is suggesting that he might fire the country's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Authorities in the region of some 500,000 people said the new measures were needed due to surging cases - with more than 1,000 positive daily tests in recent days - and also ballooning numbers of COVID-19 patients in Geneva hospitals and emergency care units.
As Trump briefly paused in his remarks many in the crowd gathered in Opa-locka, Fla., began chanting "fire Fauci, fire Fauci".
"Don't tell anybody but let me wait until a little bit after the election", Trump said after the rally's "Fire Fauci!" chants fell apart. "I appreciate the advice, I appreciate the advice".
In an interview with The Washington Post this weekend, Fauci cautioned that the USA will have to deal with "a whole lot of hurt" in the weeks ahead due to surging coronavirus cases.
However, it's unclear if Trump has the ability to fire Fauci, because he's not a presidential appointee. Fauci is a nice guy.
Fauci said in February that the risk of coronavirus in the USA was "relatively low", and told CBS's 60 Minutes program in March that "people should not be walking around with masks".
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Trump has sparred frequently with Fauci since the pandemic began in the US early this year. "He's been here for 500 years", Trump said. "It's not a good situation", Fauci stated on record.
The country is in for "a whole lot of hurt" in the coming weeks as cases surge, Fauci said.
The pledge to dismiss Fauci comes amid a broader effort by the White House and the Trump campaign to dismiss the severity of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, he compared the Trump administration as that which looks at the virus "from a different perspective", one focused on economy and keeping the USA open.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of White House Coronavirus Task Force, is a tremendously popular figure with the American public but he's been largely sidelined by the Trump regime. He said that perspective was "the economy and reopening the country", according to the Post. But then, Trump is now considered a bigger cult figure than Fauci.
Fauci is a career civil servant, and under current federal law, Trump does not have the power to fire him or remove him from the government directly.
The doctor didn't specifically attribute his gloomy assessment to Trump's policies, but Biden has made the virus outbreak the centerpiece of his campaign, repeatedly blaming the president for the nation's Covid-19 death toll, which stands at more than 230,000.
