Alex Wong/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — A day after President Donald Trump retweeted a #FireFauci tweet following Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Sunday comments to CNN how the Trump administration “could have saved lives” had guidelines been enforced earlier, President Trump is saying he has no intention to fire the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases.
“Not everybody is happy with Anthony, not everybody is happy with everybody. I will tell you we have done a job the likes of which nobody has done. The mobilization, getting of equipment. Nobody has ever done a job like this,” he said in his daily press conference.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley further clarified Monday afternoon, “This media chatter is ridiculous — President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci. “The President’s tweet clearly exposed media attempts to maliciously push a falsehood about his China decision in an attempt to rewrite history.”
Gidley pinned the blame on Democrats for ignoring the severity of COVID-19, saying, “It was Democrats and the media who ignored Coronavirus choosing to focus on impeachment instead, and when they finally did comment on the virus it was to attack President Trump for taking the bold decisive action to save American lives by cutting off travel from China and from Europe. Dr. Fauci has been and remains a trusted advisor to President Trump.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 22,000 American lives since the first case was reported in the country.
With cities across the nation reporting promising signs that the curve is starting to flatten, President Trump is focusing on how to reopen the country by May 1.
President Trump announced that he could introduce the “opening up the country council” as early as Tuesday. Reopening the country is what the president calls “the biggest decision of my life.”
Also on Monday, Dr. Fauci clarified his comments, “The nature of the hypothetical question was if, in fact, we had mitigated earlier, could lives have been saved? And the answer to my question was, as I always do, and I am doing right now, perfectly honestly saying, yes. I mean, obviously.” He added that his words were “taken as a way that maybe something was at fault.”
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