Free Anthony Fauci!
In his personal attacks, is there any limit to how low Donald Trump will go? No. When will he go even lower than he went today? Tomorrow.
By this time, we’re no longer shocked by any insult that comes out of this man’s ugly mouth. He called John McCain a “coward” and a “loser.” He called Carly Fiorina “horseface.” He’s called countless women “dogs.” He’s called his political opponents, both Republican and Democrat, “crazy,” “low IQ,” “wacky,” “crooked,” “lazy” and worse. Not even the pope’s been spared. Trump called him “disgraceful.” Every day, from the highest office in the land, he engages in a level of namecalling we wouldn’t tolerate from our kids in the schoolyard.
So we shouldn’t be surprised that Trump’s now launched a smear campaign against Dr. Anthony Fauci. (Rumors are that Mother Teresa’s next).
Trump, of course, denies having anything to do with trashing Fauci, which, on the face of it, is a big fat lie. His fingerprints are all over the slurs against Fauci. The campaign began last week with a memo circulated by the White House press office to The Washington Post and other news outlets listing “misstatements” made by Fauci early in the pandemic. It continued with an anti-Fauci cartoon posted by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino. It exploded with a scathing anti-Fauci op-ed in USA Today by failed political hack and White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro. And the White House still blocks Fauci from making any TV appearances.
On one hand, the attacks on Fauci are so amateurish they’re laughable. True, way back in early January, when we first learned of coronavirus, Fauci didn’t urge everyone to rush out and wear a mask. But as the virus spread, Fauci was the first to issue a dire warning and urge maskwearing, social-distancing and shutting down nonessential businesses — which Trump has STILL not endorsed.
Meanwhile, from the beginning, Trump himself consistently downplayed the danger of COVID-19. “You have 15 people,” he said on February 26, “and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down close to zero.” In April, he predicted, “when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.” He urged people to take the unproven drug hydroxychloroquine and suggested they might drink Lysol. On May 8, he reassured Americans that the coronavirus is “going to go away without a vaccine.” And, as recently as July 4, as cases soared to an all-time high, Trump declared “a tremendous victory” over COVID-19.
Trump or Fauci? Seriously, who’s guilty of misstatements about COVID?
Again, it might be laughable, were it not so deadly dangerous. Every day, there are more confirmed cases and deaths from COVID than ever before. On Sunday, July 12, Florida set a record of 15,299 cases. As of this writing, 39 states are experiencing a surge in new cases. The United States now reports over 3.5 million cases and over 138,000 deaths, more than any other country on the planet. It’s only getting worse. There’s no end in sight.
And what’s Donald Trump doing about it? He’s doing NOTHING — except siccing his sycophants on Anthony Fauci.
To his credit, Fauci hasn’t taken the bait. He’s simply dismissed the personal attacks as “bizarre,” and suggested the White House get on with the job of saving lives. But that’s not enough. It’s time for Dr. Fauci to do the honorable thing and resign from Trump’s phony, meaningless Coronavirus Task Force. It seldom meets anymore, anyway, and it’s nothing but a platform for Trump and Mike Pence to assure the American people that “everything’s OK,” while the body bags pile up daily.
Fauci’s voice would still be heard. His job at the CDC is secure. He would still be our national leader out of the pandemic. But with even more credibility, once free from any association with the taint, the lies, and the insults of Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, who knows how many lives have been lost because of Trump’s ignorance and incompetence in dealing with the disease. The saddest story I’ve heard was about a 30-year-old man in San Antonio, who’d recently attended a so-called “COVID” party and contracted the disease. On his deathbed, with no family members present to hold his hand, he told his nurse: “I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not.”
Only one callous national leader told that poor young man the coronavirus was a hoax. And it wasn’t Anthony Fauci.