Pitting 80-year-old National Institutes of Health Chief of Allergy and Infectious disease Dr. Anthony Fauci against 74-year-old President Donald Trump, Democrats and the media have found another political issue to get rid of Trump in November. Instead of looking at the big picture, the media plays Fauci as the foil to Trump’s reelection bid, using the Democratic National Committee’s talking points that Trump has botched the coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 global pandemic. With 13,134,873 cases and 573, 302 deaths worldwide, the U.S. accounts for about 25% of cases and deaths, currently recording 3,441,503 cases and 137,843 deaths. Trump hoped things would look differently but finds himself trying to climb out of the negative publicity hurting his 2020 campaign. Democrat’s 77-year-old former Vice President and Democrat presumptive nominee Joe Biden has capitalized.
Fauci’s been a high profile piece of Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force since Feb. 27, providing the infectious disease expertise and experience to lend credibility to the White House Task Force. Together 64-year-old State Department physician Dr. Deborah Birx, Fauci influenced Trump to issue shelter-in-place orders at the states that decimated the U.S. economy. Trump watched his booming economy with its record 3.5% unemployment tank, hit a nationwide unemployment rate of 15%. It didn’t take long for the economy to hit the skids, forcing the Federal Reserve Board and Congress to take emergency economic measures with Trump signing the $2.2 trillion CARES Act March 27. Trump’s frustration with his coronavirus Task Force stems from the fact that they’re oblivious to the economic fallout from shutting down the economy, creating real problems for Trump’s reelection.
Fauci finds himself exploited by the mainstream press to prove Trump has mismanaged the Covid-19 crisis, with the U.S. now the epicenter of the global pandemic. Asked questions indicting the president’s credibility, including about pushing to open up the economy, when the coronavirus remained a high risk of infection. “Dr. Fauci is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes,” Trump told Fox New Sean Hannity July 9. Trump told Hannity that Fauci was wrong on the Chinese travel ban and on wearing face masks. Fauci’s become a thorn in Trump’s side because the media uses him to discredit the White House’s response to the virus. Whether admitted to or not, the coronvirus pandemic has been hopelessly politicized in the battle for the White House. Fauci’s become Democrats ace-in-the-hold to continue hammering Trump’s response to the global pandemic.
Fauci told CNN July 7 that the U.S. was “knee deep in the first wave,” everything they needed to hear to attack Trump’s response to the virus. “I have a reputation, as you have probably figured out, of speaking the truth at all times, not sugar-coating things,” Fauci told the Financial Times July 10. “And that may be one of the reasons why I haven’t been on television too much lately,” showing the ongoing tension between Fauci and Trump. Whether Fauci has a political agenda is anyone’s guess. One thing’s for sure, the media has pitted Fauci against Trump, hoping to build a solid case against the president this fall. Fauci, who continues to work fulltime for the NIH at age 80, shows no signs of retiring anytime soon, speaking volumes about the system. Fauci understands the dos-and-don’ts of infectious disease but he knows nothing about the collateral damage on heath from shutting down the economy.
With reports today that the federal budget deficit could be $3.4 trillion by Sept. 30 and with foreclosures and bankruptcies on the rise, Wall Street defies all logic with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising over 400 point to 26,4881.22 at Midday, suggesting another steep sell-off is on the way. Trump knows that the coronavirus has tanked the U.S. economy and promises to get much worse by Election Day. Bear market rallies look good to Wall Street’s selective investors but the economic fallout to the rest of the economy makes the president look bad. Fauci’s been Trump’s foil when it comes to reopening K-12 schools, universities and colleges. A recent ruling by Immigration Customs Enforcement [ICE] preventing the nation’s 213,000 foreign college students from getting M-1 and F-1 visas if enrolled in online instruction, is about to get struck down in U.S. District Court in Boston.
Showing that Fauci allowed himself to get politicized, he told Nate Silver’s liberal FiveThirtyEight number-crunching blog that it’s difficult to avoid today’s hyper- partisanship. “You have to be having blindfolders on and covering your ears to think that we don’t live in very divisive society now, from a political standpoint,” Fauci said. “You’d have to make the assumption that if there wasn’t such divisiveness, that we would have a more coordinated approach,” admitting that politics has slowed the government’s attempt to manage the virus. Fauci’s admission about politics is precisely why Trump wants the 80-year-old doctor off the headline-making center stage. “As a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great,” Fauci said. “I mean, we’re just not,” showing exactly why Fauci needs to be removed from the political arena.
