President Trump has hi-t back at Dr. Fauci’s cla!ms that his words were ‘taken out of context’ in a new campaign ad that showed him praising the president’s response to the Covid-19 pan*emic.
‘They are indeed Dr. Fauci’s own words,’ Trump tweeted Sunday after the nation’s leading in-fectious di*ease expert called the ad mis-leading.
‘We have done a “phenomenal” job, according to certain governors. Many people agree… And now come the Vaccines & Cures, long ahead of projections!’
Fauci spoke out aga!nst the ad earlier in the day, revealing the Trump campaign had used his image without his permission and tw-isted his words to make it seem like he was endorsing the president.
The 30-second campaign ad, which began airing after Trump was released from the hospital last week, cites the president’s personal experience with Covid-19 before cu-tting to a video of Fauci.’President Trump is recovering from the Covid-19, and so is America,’ the ad says.’Together we rose to meet the challenge, protecting our seniors, getting them life-saving d*ugs in record time, spa-ring no expense. President Trump ta-ckled the v*rus head-on, as leaders should.’
Fauci is then shown saying: ‘I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more,’ creating the impression he is referring to Trump. The ad goes on to urge Americans to ‘live carefully, but not afra!d,’ in an apparent reference to Trump’s message last week, telling people not to be sca-red of the v*rus. Fauci, one of the leading members of the White House Covid-19 task fo-rce, said his words were taken out of context from a statement he made in March.
‘In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate,’ he said in a statement to CNN.’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 fe-deral public health officials.’ Fauci’s comments were made during an interview with Fox News in March when the doctor had applauded the task fo-rce’s coordinated response after the de*dly outbr-eak gr-ipped the country.
The complete clip shows Fauci saying: ‘I have been dev-oting almost full time on this. I’m down at the White House virtually every day with the task fo-rce.’ It’s every single day. So, I can’t imagine that under any circumstances that anybody could be doing more.’The Trump campaign later responded to Fauci’s remarks and said the ad was ‘accurate.” These are Dr. Fauci’s own words. The video is from a nationally broadcast television interview in which Dr. Fauci was praising the work of the Trump Administration. The words spoken are accurate, and directly from Dr. Fauci’s mouth,’ communications director Tim Murtaugh said.
As a leading member of the White House task fo-rce on the Covid-19, the 79-year-old doctor has frequently had to walk a fine line in attempting to clarify – or correct – the president’s often inca-utious as*ertions about the di*ease or the treatments and vaccines being developed aga!nst Covid-19. Fauci has at times ar-oused Trump’s ire, as when the president in April retweeted a message containing the hashtag #FireFauci – before publicly insisting the doctor was doing a great job. Trump has been widely cr!ticized for his response to the Covid-19 pan*emic which has cla!med the lives of more than 214,000 Americans so far – the highest loss toll for the vi-rus in the world.
Last week, the president was also cr!ticized for downplaying the de*dly il-lness after he cla!med he was feeling ‘great’ and told Americans not to be afra!d of the vi-rus after he was returned home from a three-day stint at Walter Reed Medical Center. Earlier on Sunday, ten days after he tested positive, Trump announced he has been cured of COVID-19 cla!ming he now has ‘protective glow’ due to his supposed new ‘immunity’ to the vi-rus.’Once you recover, you’re immune,’ Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ in a phone interview.’Now you have a president that’s immune.’
Moments after the interview he tweeted: ‘A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it. Very nice to know!!!’Twitter flagged the tweets as ‘misleading’ – which the social media site has done on several other posts from the president in the last year. The disclaimer said Trump v!olated its company’s rules about spreading potentially ha*mful information related to the vi-rus and pan*emic.
The disclaimer now permanently attached to the post reads: ‘This Tweet v!olated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially ha*mful information related to COVID-19. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest in the Tweet to remain accessible.’It also pro-mpts users to ‘learn more’ in a link that directs to a page on ‘helping people find reliable information’ about COVID-19. Trump said he passed the ‘highest standards’ to show he no longer has Covid-19 as questions emerged after a note from his doctor did not expl!citly say if he tested neg*tive since his d!agnosis.
‘The White House doctors, as you know, are the best. And they said totally free of spreading,’ Trump said.’So now you have a president who doesn’t have to hide in his basement,’ he added, repeating a cr!ticism he had of Joe Biden, who largely campaigned from a basement television studio in the midst of the pan*emic.
This Article First Published On DAILYMAIL