Dr. Anthony Fauci wants you to know he is finally a free man. The top federal government infectious disease expert has embarked on a whirlwind media tour in which he has frequently jabbed at former President Donald Trump, despite his new boss’s pledge to take politics out of the federal pandemic response.
“It is somewhat of a liberating feeling,” the prominent coronavirus task force member said in his first White House briefing under President Biden, since he now “can get up here and talk about what, you know, what the evidence, what the science is, and know that’s it, let the science speak.”
Fauci was even more effusive on the MSNBC show hosted by liberal commentator Rachel Maddow.
“I’ve been wanting to come on your show for months and months,” he said. “You’ve been asking me to come on your show for months and months, and it’s just gotten blocked. Let’s call it what it is. It just got blocked because they didn’t like the way you handle things, and they didn’t want me on.”
“’Why would you want to go on Rachel Maddow’s show?’’ Fauci suggested the Trump White House would ask. “’Well, because I like her and she’s really good.’” Working for Trump, he said, was a “tough situation.”
An interview Fauci did with the New York Times focused on the perils of serving under Trump. “It isn’t like I took any pleasure in contradicting the president of the United States. I have a great deal of respect for the office. But I made a decision that I just had to,” he said, even as another high-profile Trump adviser suggested Fauci was out of line.
“It is odd for an adviser to be so visibly excited to be on the podium at a press conference,” said Dr. Scott Atlas, a former coronavirus task force member. “The job of the adviser is not to be a media star. The job of the adviser is to give advice to the president.”
Atlas argued state governors mostly followed their policy advice. “These people — Fauci, [White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah] Birx, and [Centers for Disease Control and Prevent Director Robert] Redfield — they were the advisers the entire time,” he said. “They remained the advisers throughout the entire Trump presidency until the end. If they don’t like the results of those policies, they ought to look in the mirror.”
The 80-year-old Fauci emerged as one of the top public faces of the government’s efforts to manage the spread of the coronavirus. His approval ratings regularly exceeded Trump’s, though his advocacy of business and school closures was controversial. Fauci described to the New York Times threats he and his family faced.
Fauci initially chastised the press for playing up differences between Trump and himself. And he has gently corrected some of the Biden administration’s claims about vaccine distribution, pointing out it is not starting from scratch and clarifying that the planned 100 million doses in 100 days probably means closer to 67 million people actually getting vaccinated. His clashes with Trump were well known, however, and Fauci grew more outspoken as the president’s reelection prospects dimmed. Trump, and loyalists like adviser Peter Navarro, in turn, became more openly critical of Fauci.
“Obviously, I don’t want to be going back over history, but it was very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact,” Fauci told reporters at the White House last week.
Biden has showcased the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in his own COVID-19 efforts. Nevertheless, Fauci’s continued focus on Trump seems at odds with the president’s stated desire to de-politicize the public health crisis. “We are entering what may well be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus,” Biden said in his inaugural address. “We must set aside the politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation.”
Fauci’s high profile, including some interviews in which he has acknowledged tailoring his comments to what he thought the public was ready to accept, and political maneuvering have managed to ruffle feathers even in Washington.
“I find it hilarious that Fauci is complaining he didn’t get enough time with the media when Trump was president. This guy has been ubiquitous on television since last March,” said Republican strategist John Feehery. “I think he is trying to shift the blame to Trump, which, of course, has been gladly gobbled up by the media. One thing you can say about Fauci: He is a survivor.”
A key question is whether Fauci’s media offensive is important to holding the Trump administration accountable for its widely panned response to the pandemic, which has killed over 410,000 people in the U.S., or it amounts to a counterproductive fanning of the flames of partisanship on an issue where widespread public compliance with guidelines is required.
Fauci has told interviewers he felt obligated to stay in spite of the pressure Trump put on him. “I always felt that if I did walk away,” he said, “the skunk at the picnic would no longer be at the picnic.”
