Used by the anti-Trump media in their war against 74-year-old President Donald Trump, 80-year-old National Inststutes of Health Infectious Disease and Allergy chief Dr. Anthony Fauci finds himself caught behind a rock-and-a-hard-place. Trump has omitted Fauci from his daily coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 task force briefings, preferring instead to direct the meetings, rather that let Fauci take questions from the White House press corps looking to play politics in an election year. Fauci’s been the subject of interviews for the last few months, often answering trick questions that get him to admit that the White House should be doing more to deal with the nationwide epidemic. Fauci hears constantly that Trump wants to discredit him, a 35-year-veteran of six administrations, giving him a certain degree of public trust.
Recent polls have shown Fauci with a 65% approval rating, far greater than Trump that’s the constant subject of ridicule in the mainstream press. White House officials have pointed out recently that Fauci has made mistakes during the Covid-19 crisis, one telling the public they didn’t need to wear masks or restrict air travel from foreign capitals, like China. While Trump stated facts about Fauci, the media pounced on the controversy, giving Fauci every chance to denounce Trump. New York Times opinion writer Jennifer Senior asked Fauci if he’s been contacted by the Biden campaign. “No,” Fauci said. “I mean I think they know better. That I’m in a sensitive position,” referring to his frequent requests by the press to quote him on various questions related to coronavirus. Fauci told “InStyle” magazine recently that the he thinks he’s done a good job.
Fauci told CBSN managing editor Norah O’Donnell that he doesn’t regret anything he’s said in the past, because, taken in context, it’s all correct. “With all due modesty, I think I’m pretty effective,” Fauci told O’Donnell, referring to White House criticism that he’s gotten some things wrong during the epidemic. “I don’t regret anything I said then because in the context of the time in which I said it, it was correct. We were told in our task force meetings that we had a serous lack of PPEs and masks for health providers who are putting themselves in harm’s way ever day to take care of sick people,” Fauci told O’Donnell, explaining why he changed his tune on masks. Fauci didn’t address why, back in January, he opposed a travel ban on China, something Trump did anyway. Fauci has worked closely for years with the World Health Organization [WHO], a group Trump criticizes.
Fauci, who’s no politician, doesn’t know that many of the interview requests he gets are not so innocent, but attempt by the press to pitch him against Trump. It’s not uncommon for CNN or MSNBC to ask daily, “where’s Fauci?” implying that he’s been sidelined by Trump for making him look bad. New York Times’ Senior was so obvious in pitting Fauci against Trump, he refused to take the bait. Trump finds himself under constant criticism for the U.S. hosting some 25% of the world’s Covid-19 cases, now totaling 4,161,991 cases and 147,333 deaths. Americans have lived through lockdowns since March, with cases spiking over the summer especially in Florida, including the Sun Belt, with Texas, Arizona and California spiking. Instead of explaining the ebb-and-flow of the nationwide epidemic, Democrats and the media have made Covid-19 a campaign issue.
Democrats and the media like to call Fauci the “nation’s leading expert on infectious disease,” something so self-serving, so misleading, all for the purpose of showing the White House what it’s missing. Democrats and the media make a big deal of Fauci not appearing at Trump’s recent press briefings. No one can possibly think that at 80-year-old of age Fauci is the nation’s leading infectious disease expert. He’s certainly been around but there are plenty of other experts in the their prime that have different opinions on how best to deal with the cornavirus crisis, including 65-year-old Stanford University Hoover Institution’s Dr. Scott Atlas who has a very different approach. Atlas believes that government shutdowns, isolation and social distancing prolong the epidemic, preventing the public from developing “herd immunity” necessary for recovery.
Pitting Fauci against Trump has been a favorite campaign strategy for Democrats and the media in the election year. Democrats decided that blaming Trump for coronavirus epidemic is its main campaign strategy. Using Fauci against Trump has left the White House no choice but to limit his media contacts. “But Jennifer, would you want me to say something that’s directly contrary to what the president is doing? That’s not helpful. Then all of sudden you don’t want to hear from me for a while,” Fauci told New York Times Senior. Truth be told, of course she’d like to see him criticize the president because the Times is not neutral in the presidential race, heavily favoring 77-year-old Democrat presumptive nominee former Vice President Joe Biden. Whether he knows it or not, Fauci has already said plenty to the press to discredit the president.
