Trump clashes with reporters, emphasises president’s ‘total’ authority
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump defended his response to the Covid19 outbreak yesterday and said he did not intend to fire Anthony Fauci after the leading US health expert said earlier mitigation efforts could have saved more lives.
At a contentious briefing with reporters, Trump lashed out at media coverage that has focused on gaps in the federal government's response after initial warnings about the pandemic disease which has now spread throughout the United States.
The president asserted he had the ultimate authority to reopen the economy despite an earlier deference to US state governors, and constitutional questions about whether that decisionmaking fell within his purview.
‘‘The President of the United States calls the shots. If we weren’t here for the states, you’d have had a problem in this country like you’ve never seen before,’’ Trump said.
‘‘When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it's got to be. . . It's total. The governors know that.’’
Trump, who said a plan to open businesses again would be completed soon, interrupted his daily briefing to play a campaignstyle video that highlighted his actions to tackle the virus, with clips of Democratic and Republican governors praising his efforts.
He also invited Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to the stage early in the briefing to make clear that Trump had followed his recommendations on putting mitigation efforts into place across the country.
Trump, who played down the seriousness of the virus initially, has chaffed at media coverage suggesting he did not do enough to prevent its spread.
On Monday, he retweeted a call to fire Fauci, who had said in a televised interview lives could have been saved if the country had shut down sooner during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Yesterday, Fauci said he was answering a hypothetical question in the interview and made clear that Trump had listened to him when he recommended mitigation efforts.
Trump said he and Fauci had been on the same page ‘‘from the beginning’’.
The retweet fuelled speculation Trump was running out of patience with Fauci and could fire him.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Trump’s retweet addressed what he considered a false report on his travel restriction involving China.
Fauci had been asked on CNN about a New York Times report documenting early warnings issued to the White House about the novel coronavirus. He acknowledged shutting the country down sooner could have saved lives, but cautioned that a number of factors were involved.
‘‘Obviously, it would have been nice if we had a better head start, but I don’t think you could say that we are where we are right now because of one factor,’’ Fauci said.
‘‘It’s very complicated.’’
Trump also denounced the
story in tweets on Monday, calling it ‘‘Fake.’’
Some opinion polls during the crisis have shown Americans trust Fauci more than Trump. — Reuters