As global Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases topped 40 million with numbers surging in Europe and the United States, President Donald Trump has opened up a new line of attack against the country’s top infectious diseases expert.
In a broadside against the Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Trump called Dr Anthony Fauci an idiot and a disaster over a difference of approach to tackling the virus that has killed over 220 000 Americans and counting.
Dr.Tony Fauci says we don’t allow him to do television, and yet I saw him last night on @60Minutes, and he seems to get more airtime than anybody since the late, great, Bob Hope. All I ask of Tony is that he make better decisions. He said “no masks & let China in”. Also, Bad arm!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020
Trump calls Dr. Anthony Fauci an ‘idiot and a disaster’:
As cases surge in the United States – about 57 000 new infections in the last 24 hours – with reports that every resident of a Kansas nursing home tested positive for COVID-19, including 10 fatalities, this new line of attack from the President during a call with campaign staff and reporters.
President Trump, likely referring to an interview Dr Fauci gave to CBS News on Sunday, in which he said he wasn’t surprised the president contracted COVID-19 due to the precarious events with no masks and social distancing that Trump frequented, despite contracting and recovering from the coronavirus, the president has continued to hold in-person super-spreader events that run counter to public health protocols.
Fauci was asked about the president’s latest comments calling him a disaster and an idiot during an interview with California radio station KNX1070.