Trump attacks top expert after Fauci criticizes campaign ad
US President Donald Trump has criticized Doctor Anthony Fauci's expertise after the top expert criticized Trump's campaign for featuring the nation’s top infectious disease expert in an advertisement.
Trump had attacked Fauci before, saying the top immunologist "made a lot of mistakes" and “I disagree with him."
In a tweet on Tuesday morning, Trump wrote that Fauci's pitching arm -- a reference to his poor first pitch at Nationals Park on Major League Baseball’s Opening Day in July -- was "far more accurate than his prognostications."
Trump on Tuesday also referenced Fauci's advice given early in the pandemic against wearing masks. That decision was due largely to a nationwide shortage of masks.
“‘No problem, no masks’. WHO no longer likes Lockdowns - just came out against,” the president added. “Trump was right. We saved 2,000,000 USA lives!!!”
Fauci, for his part, in many television appearances has openly questioned some of Trump's inaccurate claims.
The longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, earlier this week, slammed the Trump reelection campaign for using his words out of context in a campaign ad touting Trump's handling the coronavirus crisis.
Fauci said in a statement on Sunday when asked if he agreed to be featured in Trump's reelection ad that during his five-decade career he had "never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials."
On Monday, Fauci warned that if the Trump team featured him in another ad, "That might actually come back to backfire on them."
Fauci told the Daily Beast that by distorting my words in campaign ads "against my will, they are, in effect, harassing me."
"I mean obviously there are a lot of things that are going on that you would prefer did not happen, like the ad, which put me in a political context, which I spent my entire career staying out of political context. That's not helpful, but I'm certainly not going to give up. I've devoted my entire professional life to fighting infectious diseases," Fauci said in another interview with CNBC.
Source: Press Tv
