The media can’t stop asking Dr. Anthony Fauci about two topics that aren’t directed pinned to the novel coronavirus pandemic currently spreading across the world, and the doctor has taken notice.
Fauci has been forced to field numerous questions from the media about how he is able to work under the Trump administration as well as loaded questions that appear to be aimed at slamming President Donald Trump. (RELATED: Dr. Anthony Fauci Dumps Cold Water On The Media’s Latest Anti-Trump Narrative)
An article published March 22 by Science Mag asked Fauci flat out how he is “managing to not get fired.” The chief medical adviser to the coronavirus task force pushed back and said that the president listens to what he says.
“Well, that’s pretty interesting because to [Trump’s] credit, even though we disagree on some things, he listens,” Fauci replied. “He goes his own way. He has his own style. But on substantive issues, he does listen to what I say.”
The same interview asked numerous questions that appeared to be aimed at presenting the president in a bad light. These questions included asking Fauci if he’s “been in press conferences where things are happening that you disagree with.” Another “question” simply pointed out that “things are being said that aren’t true and aren’t factual.”
An article on The Hour published March 23 made sure to highlight a few of Science Mag’s questions and interpret them. The op-ed, titled “‘I know, but what do you want me to do?’: Fauci’s strikingly honest review of Trump’s coronavirus response,” suggested that the immunologist is frustrated with a failing Trump administration.
“In short, it’s precisely what the critical coverage of Trump has been saying for weeks, but that Trump’s many and ardent defenders have applied blinders on themselves to ignore,” according to the article.
However, in a Real Clear Politics interview Monday, Fauci flat-out praised the “coordinated response” of the administration as “impressive.” He added that he was unable to “imagine that that under any circumstances that anybody could be doing more.”
In an article published March 22 by The Atlantic, the chief medical adviser to the coronavirus task force was pressed about how working for Trump is and if he has been pressured by the administration.
Fauci dismissed these questions, saying that the administration has not pressured him and that Trump has “always ultimately listened to what I’ve said.”
“No matter what his style is, when it comes to the core of what gets done, thankfully, he has listened to me,” Fauci said, a point he has reiterated to the media numerous times.
These questions do not bring helpful answers for the American public about the novel coronavirus, a point that Fauci made Tuesday during an interview on WMAL’s “Mornings on the Mall” with Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese.
LISTEN:
Coglianese noted that it seems as though “a bunch of the questions from the media are designed to create a rift between” him and the president. Fauci immediately agreed and urged the media to stop trying to cause problems amid a global pandemic.
“That is really unfortunate,” Fauci said. “I would wish that that would stop, because we have a much bigger problem here than trying to point out differences. It really, fundamentally at the core when you look at things, there are not differences. The president has listened to what I have said and what the other people on the task force have said.”
“When I’ve made recommendations, he’s taken them. He’s never countered or over-ridden me. The idea of just pitting one against the other is just not helpful. I wish that that would stop and we’d look ahead at the challenge we have to pull together to get over this thing.”