In a call with campaign staffers Monday, President Donald Trump ripped Dr. Anthony Fauci and said voters are tired of hearing about the coronavirus, according to multiple reporters who heard the call.
Trump reportedly called Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, a “disaster” and said if he had listened to the doctor there would be 700,000 or 800,000 American deaths. As of Monday afternoon, the country’s death toll stood at nearly 220,000.
“People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots, all these people that have gotten it wrong,” Trump said, according to reports. “Fauci is a nice guy. He’s been here for 500 years. He called every one of them wrong.”
Trump’s tirade came a day after Fauci told “60 Minutes” that he was not surprised the president contracted COVID-19 after seeing footage from the Sept. 26 White House Rose Garden ceremony announcing the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, where there was no social distancing and few guests wore masks. Fauci and Trump also have been at odds in recent days over the campaign’s decision to feature the doctor in a television ad – without his consent and using a comment Fauci says was taken out of context.
Fauci also told “60 Minutes” that the White House has blocked him from making “many, many, many” media appearances. During Monday’s call, Trump confirmed that he’s uneasy about Fauci conducting interviews and also indicated that he’s considered removing Fauci from his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in which he has served since 1984.
"Every time he goes on television there's always a bomb, but there's a bigger bomb if you fire him,” Trump said, according to the reports.
Trump reportedly said his large campaign rallies – which also don’t follow social distancing guidelines and whose attendees largely don’t wear masks – prove that people are fed up with talk about the pandemic.
"People are tired of Covid,” he said. “I have these huge rallies," Trump said. "People are saying, Whatever, just leave us alone.’ They're tired of it.”
In part due to his handling of the pandemic, Trump is trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden in nearly all nationwide polls. He’s also either behind or in a tough fight in several battleground states that he carried in 2016.
He has repeatedly sought to undermine the credibility of Fauci, whose assessments often contradict the president’s declarations that the public health crisis is nearing an end and that economies should be fully reopened.
At a campaign rally Sunday in Carson City, Nevada, Trump did not hide his disdain for health experts, mocking Biden for saying he'd listen to scientists about the pandemic.
"If you vote for Biden, he will surrender your jobs to China,” the president said. “He will surrender your future to the virus. He's going to lock down – this guy wants to lock down. He'll listen to the scientists.
"If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression instead of – we're like a rocket ship, take a look at the numbers."