Frustrated Trump calls Fauci a ‘disaster’
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump went after top government scientist Anthony Fauci in a call with campaign staffers on Monday, suggesting the hugely respected and popular doctor was an “idiot”.
Dr Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, has increasingly become a focus for the president’s frustration as he bids to shape the messaging on the much-criticised federal response to the pandemic.
“People are tired of COVID,” Mr Trump told his campaign team in a call on which several members of the press were present.
“People are saying, ‘Whatever — just leave us alone’.
They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots,” the president said, according to several US media outlets.
The pandemic has killed 220,000 people in the US.
“He’s been here for, like, 500 years,” Mr Trump complained of the 79-year-old Dr Fauci, who is recognised worldwide for his work directing the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases in Washington.
“Fauci, if we listened to him, we’d have 700,000 (or) 800,000 deaths,” Mr Trump claimed on the call, before saying that it would be counterproductive to fire him.
Democrat candidate Joe Biden was off the campaign trail on Monday, but his campaign praised Dr Fauci and criticised Mr Trump for “reckless and negligent leadership” that “threatens to put more lives at risk”.
“Trump’s closing message in the final days of the 2020 race is to publicly mock Joe Biden for trusting science and to call Dr Fauci, the leading public health official on COVID-19, a ‘disaster’ and other public health officials ‘idiots’,” the campaign said.
Meanwhile the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced the candidates at the final presidential debate on Friday morning will be muted while the other has the floor and any other interruptions will count towards their time.