Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations’ top medical voice on the coronavirus White House coronavirus task force, is fully supportive of President Trump and is adamantly rejecting the notion of internal tensions.
After Fauci appeared on CNN earlier this week, a media firestorm of speculation hovered around Fauci’s statement that there was pushback on his recommendations.
Dr. Anthony Fauci: "You could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives… But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back." pic.twitter.com/hJrwlN0EGD
— Global Analytica (@AnalyticaGlobal) April 14, 2020
Since that interview the media wanted to discover if that statement was a hint of Fauci’s disappointment with President Trump.
Dr. Fauci put such notions to rest Monday afternoon.
“In the interview, you said there was pushback,” Fauci was asked during the briefing. “Where did that pushback come from?”
Fauci did not take the bait.
“That was the wrong choice of words,” Fauci said. “You know what it was, when people discuss — not necessarily in front of the president — when people discuss, they say, ‘Well, this is going to have maybe a harmful effect on this or that.’ So, it was a poor choice of words. It wasn’t anybody saying, ‘No, you shouldn’t do this.'”
Journalist asks: “Are you doing this voluntarily?”
Dr. Fauci: “Everything I do is voluntary.. please.. don’t even imply that.”
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) April 13, 2020
The reporter wasn’t satisfied. “Are you doing this involuntarily or did the president —”
“No,” Fauci said interrupting the reporter. “Everything I do is voluntarily, please. Don’t even imply that.”