Fauci: Navarro op-ed ‘nonsense,’ ‘a bit bizarre’
WASHINGTON — Infighting over the White House’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is spilling further into public view, with trade adviser Peter Navarro panning Dr. Anthony Fauci as President Donald Trump stands watch.
Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, called the criticism “nonsense” and “a bit bizarre.”
The long-simmering tiff escalated when Navarro wrote an op-ed in USA Today skewering Fauci, writing that the doctor “has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on. … So when you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is: only with skepticism and caution.”
In an interview with The Atlantic, Fauci returned: “I can’t explain Peter Navarro. He’s in a world by himself. So I don’t even want to go there.”
And Trump, who has complained about Fauci privately for months — and publicly in recent days — stepped in to referee.
Navarro “made a statement representing himself. He shouldn’t be doing that,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for Atlanta. The president insisted he had a
“very good relationship with Dr. Fauci” and said his staffers were working together.
“We’re all on the same team,” Trump said. “We want to get rid of this mess that China sent us. So everybody’s working on the same line and we’re doing very well.”
Still, a person familiar with the matter said Trump himself was amused by the spat, believing Navarro highlighted errors by Fauci and helped reduce his public stature.
One White House official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Navarro had been warned by the White House communications team in recent days to deescalate his beef with Fauci but went ahead with the op-ed nonetheless.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows did not approve the article and is “fully engaged,” according to the official.
Meadows told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday evening that Navarro’s oped comments “really just reflect Peter Navarro’s personal thinking and not the thinking of the West Wing.”
Asked whether Navarro had committed a fireable offense, Meadows said: “I don’t talk about personnel matters.”