Grouchy Fauci hits back at ‘fake ad’

WASHINGTON: America’s top government scientist Anthony Fauci said yesterday that an ad aired by Donald Trump’s re-election campaign was deliberately edited to make him seem to endorse the President’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“In my nearly five decades of public service I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate,” Dr Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said.

The 30-second campaign ad cites Mr Trump’s experience with the virus.

“President Trump is recovering from the coronavirus, and so is America,” it says – before including a brief clip in which Dr Fauci ( pictured) app pears to praise the President’s handling of the p pandemic.

“I can’t imagine that anyb body could be doing more,” Dr Fauci is shown as saying, creating the clear impression that he is referring to Mr Trump.

But a complete clip of Dr Fauci’s comments, made during an interview in March with Fox News, shows the doctor saying: “I have been devoting almost full time on this. I’m down at the White House virtually every day with the task force. It’s every single day. So, I can’t imagine that under any circumstances that anybody could be doing more.”

In his statement on Monday, Dr Fauci said: “The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials.”

Trump defended the clip, and his handling of pandemic, and rebutted the doctor’s criticism.

“They are indeed Dr. Fauci’s own words. We have done a ‘phenomenal’ job, according to certain governors,” the President wrote in a tweet.

Dr Fauci has frequently been forced to clarify Mr Trump’s incautious assertions about the virus and potential treatments and vaccines.