Dr. Anthony Fauci said he didn’t hesitate to accept President-elect Joe Biden’s offer to be his chief medical adviser.
In an interview with NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was asked if he agreed to Biden’s proposal that he remain in his post and become his chief medical adviser as “part of the COVID team.”
“Did you say yes?” Guthrie asked.
“Oh, absolutely. I said yes right on the spot, yeah,” Fauci responded.
Will you accept President-elect Biden’s offer to serve as his chief medical adviser? –@SavannahGuthrie
Absolutely, I said yes right on the spot. -Dr. Anthony Fauci pic.twitter.com/lHr3z1v3vo
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 4, 2020
Biden said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday that he plans to increase Fauci’s role in his administration to combat the coronavirus pandemic, in addition to asking the public to wear medical masks for 100 days.”You have to make sure, as he points out, that you don’t have to close down the economy like a lot of folks are talking about, if, in fact, you have clear guidance,” Biden said.
Fauci said Biden’s plea for the public to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency was his attempt to have a uniform response to the spread of the coronavirus.
“Do you feel that might put an artificial time limit on how long people may need to be wearing masks?” Guthrie asked.
“No, no, he didn’t mean it that way. I spoke to him about that,” Fauci responded. “He just wants to get, and it’s a good idea, uniform. He’s saying, ‘Hey folks, trust me. Everybody for 100 days.’ Now it might be that after that, we still are going to need it. But he just wanted everybody for a commitment for 100 days.”
Biden, who first proposed a national mask mandate in August, would face constitutional questions if he were to follow through on the idea.
President Trump refuses to concede defeat in the 2020 election as his team continues to repeat claims of nationwide voter fraud, even after Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the Justice Department has “not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.” Despite this, Biden has continued to build his administration for his inauguration on Jan. 20.
