Fauci Is Unfazed By Trump’s Unproven Twitter Claims About COVID: ‘I Don’t Even Read Them’

President Donald Trump listens to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a Corona Task Force briefing at the White House on March 20, 2020. (Photo by Alex Won... President Donald Trump listens to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a Corona Task Force briefing at the White House on March 20, 2020. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

The nation’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday said that he doesn’t have much to say for President Donald Trump’s habit of tweeting nonsense about the coronavirus and undermining his expertise.

“I don’t tweet. I don’t even read them so I don’t really want to go there,” Fauci told Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday. “I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it’s very important.”

The comments come as President Trump has returned to pushing unproven claims about an anti-malaria drug as an effective treatment to COVID-19 — a move that challenges the credibility of the nation’s leading infectious disease expert. On Monday, he retweeted a post that suggested Fauci had “misled the American public” about the legitimacy of the drug as treatment.

“We’re in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic, a pandemic, this is what I do, this is what I’ve been trained for my entire professional life, and I’ll continue to do it,”  Fauci said.

Late Monday, the President also retweeted a post that falsely claimed that there was a cure for the coronavirus.

“Covid has cure. America wake up,” the tweet read — it has  since been deleted by Twitter.

Monday’s tweet as well as Trump’s recent renewed praise of hydroxychloroquine, follows a remark made by the President on Friday that he “often” regrets what he posts to Twitter, when Bartstool Sports executive David Portnoy asked if he ever lamented his tweets.

Although President Trump and Dr. Fauci maintain in public that they have a “very good” relationship, White House staff have smeared the infectious diseases expert in recent weeks, even sending out a memo earlier this month in which they purported to list off Fauci’s failures in handling the coronavirus pandemic.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro earlier this month also attacked Fauci in an op-ed that was published by USA Today. The White House addressed the op-ed by saying that Navarro had acted  without authorization.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Fauci again proves he’s a smart man. He’s disregarding Trump the same way he’s been disregarding anti-vaxxers for a generation. There’s no point in considering anything Trump would write because it’s all nonsense.

    Good man - keep your blood pressure down.

  2. Late Monday, the President retweeted a post that falsely stated that there was a cure for the coronavirus.
    “Covid has cure. America wake up,” the tweet which has since been deleted by Twitter read.

    It’s just my fat fingers doing it’s thing…
    I regret my retweets…NOT!

    Unfortunately, there is NO CURE for stupidity or mendacity!

  3. Nobody should read them, unfortunately the media breathlessly reports all of the drivel that he spews so there is no avoiding it unless you disconnect from the world.

  4. Including here.

  5. A perfect Pelosi-esque comment on his part. Bravo.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

40 more replies

Participants

Avatar for discobot Avatar for jb_meteo Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for 1gg Avatar for becca656 Avatar for sandyh Avatar for tacoma Avatar for danny Avatar for hagarwood Avatar for lastroth Avatar for darrtown Avatar for decay500 Avatar for jinnj Avatar for dommyluc Avatar for tiowally Avatar for uneducated Avatar for katscherger Avatar for ggus Avatar for maximus Avatar for enn Avatar for justruss Avatar for greenman66 Avatar for rucleare Avatar for emiliano4

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: